Afghanistan’s ace spinner Rashid Khan on Thursday (December 1) backed his Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya to take charge as India’s permanent captain in T20I cricket.

Pandya has impressed one and all with his leadership skills this year. He led Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 title in their very first season and then captained the Indian team to T20I series win in Ireland in the absence of Rohit Sharma.

The star all-rounder recently captained the Men in Blue to T20I series victory on the tour of New Zealand.

With Rohit entering the wrong side of 30s, there are talks doing the rounds that Hardik should be made full-time captain in the shortest format ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup and Rashid also endorsed this viewpoint.

“Pandya is a fantastic player. I think he deserves to be captain of the national side. I have played under him. I will be more than happy if he is made permanent captain of the India T20 side. It is difficult to manage players and he understands it so well and did his job brilliantly in the IPL,” Rashid told IANS.

“I will be more than happy if he gets that chance. And I wish him all the best for that, also I am waiting to be part of Gujarat Titans again next year and play under him," he added.

Rashid Khan has claimed more than 600 wickets in T20 cricket and will look to make his mark at the Abu Dhabi T10 League this season with the New York Strikers.

Speaking on the occasion, the 24-year-old said, “I am delighted to join a strong side like the New York Strikers and look forward to ensuring that we win the remainder of our games. We want to win the Abu Dhabi T10 and on my part, I will try and produce the best deliveries to help my team in such a challenging format."

(With IANS inputs)