Former India batter Mohammad Kaif has hit out at BCCI in support of Hardik Pandya. The 31-year-old scored a blazing fifty for India during the fourth T20I in Pune that saw the hosts win by 15 runs and clinch the series against England. Pandya, who played a key role in India’s T20 World Cup, was snubbed for the vice captain role. The board recently decided to name Axar Patel as the captain in the T20I format.
Kaif, while speaking on his YouTube channel, said, “He scores runs when the team needs it. He takes the wickets when the team needs it. Hardik Pandya played cameos in every match of the T20 World Cup. He is not the captain right now. Do you think he doesn't feel bad? Isn't he human, and doesn't he feel anything? He is not even the vice captain of this Indian team.”
The 44-year-old also added, “He is the captain of the Mumbai Indians. He won the IPL with the Gujarat Titans and then reached the final. But he isn't the captain of the Indian team. Suryakumar Yadav is the captain. Hardik is doing his role to the best of his ability. Hardik Pandya always gives his best. You cannot find anyone with his skill set when he gets injured.”
Hardik Pandya gives valuable advice to Jemimah Rodrigues
BCCI held its annual awards function on Saturday, where women’s team star batter Jemimah Rodrigues interacted with other players. The young batter asked Pandya about his mentality during crunch situations and how he kept himself cool.
Pandya replied, “You need to be prepared to stay cool in the match. I’ve always played a match before the match in preparation. That’s helped me focus on the right things, which eventually meant I let my body react how it should at that point in time. I back my instinct, back myself. And see how it goes.”
While speaking about power hitting, the 31-year-old said, “Power hitting, I really had the kick in me where I wanted to hit sixes. Though I didn’t have power. Over the years, as I got stronger and fitter, I could see the results that I had worked on in the early days. I put in the hard yards and God was on my side and helped me to get power-hitting ability.”