He also backed the selectors’ decision to ignore Hardik for India's Test tour of England.
Former Indian selector Sarandeep Singh wasn’t surprised by the national selectors’ decision to ignore Hardik Pandya for the upcoming tour of England for the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand next month and a five-match Test series against the hosts in August-September.
Hardik has not bowled regularly since his comeback during India’s tour of Australia last year following the back surgery in 2019, forcing the national selectors to ignore him for the upcoming England tour for not being able to use his all-round skills.
Backing the Indian selectors’ call, Singh has further opined that the all-rounder doesn’t even fit into the playing XI in ODI and T20I cricket if he can’t bowl his quota of overs, saying Pandya purely as batsman disturbs the balance of Team India hugely.
Sarandeep told PTI, “The selectors’ decision to ignore Hardik for Tests is understandable. He has not been able to bowl regularly after his surgery. I feel he has to bowl 10 overs in ODIs and four in T20s to be part of the playing XI even in shorter formats. He can’t just play as a batsman.”
He added, “If Hardik doesn’t bowl, it disturbs the balance of the side hugely. You have to play an extra bowler because of that and someone like Surykumar Yadav has to miss out. As we saw in the ODI series against England and Australia, we can’t play with five bowling options.
Then the team now has other all-rounders in Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Jaddu is back, Shardul Thakur can also be an all-rounder, he has shown that. They all can do the job if Hardik can’t bowl.”
However, the former Indian spinner was surprised by the omission of young talented cricketer Prithvi Shaw for the upcoming Test tour of England, saying he should not be sidelined so early in his career.
Singh further explained, “He has the potential to do what Virender Sehwag did for India. You can’t sideline him so early in his career. He has scored tons of runs in domestic cricket after being dropped post-Australia tour. He has corrected his technical flaws also and look how he played in the IPL.
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He continued, “You have to back a talent like Shaw and even someone like Shubman Gill (he is in the team but did not gets runs against England at home) for that matter.”
Opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, pacers Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, and Arzan Nagwaswalla were the four stand-by players picked for the England tour but the former selector wasn’t happy with the selection, saying cricketers like Priyank Panchal, Devdutt Padikkal, and Jaydev Unadkat should have been there.
Sarandeep signed off by saying, “Panchal got a hundred for India A in New Zealand. You have not picked him. You have not picked Padikkal who also scored tons of runs. For the left-arm pacer’s slot, I fail to understand why Unadkat is being ignored. He picked 67 wickets (a record) in the last Ranji Trophy and a lot of them came on the flat track of Rajkot.”
(With PTI Inputs)