Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan reckons Hardik Pandya has it in him to produce 'similar result' as Ben Stokes, while opining that the current crop of Indian all-rounders needs to win games for the team consistently to be in line for comparison with the Englishman.
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Last week, Stokes pipped Jason Holder to claim the top spot in ICC Test rankings for all-rounders on the back of his performance in the second Test against West Indies at Old Trafford. Stokes scored a century in the first innings (176) followed by a quick-fire fifty in the second dig (78* off 57 balls) and took three wickets in the game. This was after he had grabbed six wickets in series opener at Southampton and scored 46 and 43 across the two innings.
Speaking on the Star Sports show Cricket Connected, Pathan said while India do have a variety of all-round option available, none have managed to make an impact like Stokes has done.
“We have potential in the country,” Pathan said. “It’s not like we don’t have any potential. We have Hardik Pandya, we tried Vijay Shankar for some time. We have guys who bowl spin and are all-rounders like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, but the kind of match-winning impact you want to have from a fast-bowling all-rounder, you need to make sure that these guys, the names I took, should come up, go out there and win matches for your country to be in the same league as Ben Stokes.”
Irfan feels Hardik needs to bat up the order for Team India to make a similar impact like Stokes.
“If you look at Hardik Pandya’s career, even in the small number of matches, he needs to go one or two steps ahead of what he’s doing at the moment,” Pathan stated. “It’s all about winning matches. No doubt, he’s got all the potential, which he has, and in terms of support that he is getting as well [from the team].
“But, looking to bat higher up the order, then the team combination comes into play. He’s doing that – when it comes to batting up the order for Mumbai Indians and he’s delivering that. If it happens for Indian cricket, with the kind of combination that they are looking at, he might be able to produce a similar result which Ben Stokes [does]. But he has to do that, not just ‘we’re talking about it’. The potential needs to convert into performances,” he further remarked.
