As Team India’s white-ball captaincy is on the cards for Hardik Pandya, India’s first-ever World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev said that if the BCCI and the national selection committee are looking at the star all-rounder as their future captain, then they should give him a longer rope.
The legendary all-rounder further mentioned that the BCCI and the Indian selectors must back Pandya from the core, whether the result goes against them, and give him a long rope if they are considering the star cricketer for the captaincy in limited-overs cricket.
There have been a lot of talks that the BCCI can appoint Pandya as India’s captain in limited-overs cricket, at least in the T20I format, after he led the Men in Blue to six wins out of nine T20Is with one defeat. Pandya can lead Team India in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and UAE in 2024.
Kapil Dev was quoted as saying by Gulf News: “I think one shouldn't look at the world. You look at your team and your way of thinking. If Hardik Pandya is there, they should not say that if you lose one series, we will remove you. If you make someone a captain, you have to give him a fairly long rope to make sure he will start performing.”
He signed off by saying, “He will make mistakes but they key is that you don't see the error but focus on whether he is ready for taking the team and look for the future. You don’t go series-by-series.”
