Pandya had a stellar 2022 with bat and ball in white-ball cricket.
Hardik Pandya is being seen as the next white-ball captain of India by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), as per reports. Pandya, who led Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in 2022 in their first season, has impressed with his leadership skills in every opportunity given to him for India.
In Rohit Sharma's absence, Pandya led to an away T20I series win by 2-0 against Ireland, the fifth and final T20I in West Indies and then defeated New Zealand 1-0 in the three-match away T20I series last month.
Pandya only featured in three ODIs for India in 2022, but played 27 T20Is with the focus being more on the shortest format due to the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.
It remains to be seen whether Hardik is gradually handed over the captaincy duties for both white-ball formats or the T20I format first, followed by ODIs after the ODI World Cup in India.
“We have this plan and we discussed it with Hardik. He has asked for some days for a response. No decision has been taken in this regard but we are currently in the thought process to give him the white-ball captaincy, let us see how things go further,” a source told ANI.
In 27 T20I matches this year, Pandya scored 607 runs at an average of 33.72, with three half-centuries and a highest score of 71*. He also bowled superbly after recovering well from his injury issues last year, to pick up 20 wickets. In 3 ODIs in 2022, he scored 100 runs in two innings, with the best score of 71. He also took six wickets.
(ANI inputs)