South African great Lance Klusener has hailed Hardik Pandya as one of the best fast-bowling all-rounders in the game and believes that the latter gave up on Test cricket a bit too easily to manage his workload.

While Hardik made a successful comeback to white-ball cricket after going through a back surgery in 2019, he hasn’t played Test cricket for India since August 2018.

“He (Pandya) is a fantastic cricketer, and if he can stay fit and continues to bowl 135+ kmph, he will always be challenging… as one of the best allrounders in the world," Klusener told reporters in a media interaction at the Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club on Saturday (June 3).

Asked if the Indian all-rounder gave up on Test cricket a bit too easily, Klusener said, “Yes, possibly. Test cricket (is) always the pinnacle of testing where you are as a cricketer, and testing yourselves.

“Test cricket hasn’t really changed much from way back but I also understand that times have moved on as well."

According to Klusener, a fast-bowling allrounder is not a “dibbly-dobbler" but someone who can bowl at 135kph on a consistent basis.

“Fast bowling allrounders need to be bowling 135+. I don’t think there would be some dibbly-dobblers that we used to see in England, I don’t think all that (is) effective anymore.

“I honestly believe that a guy like Ben Stokes who bowls 135+, those people are still gold in any form of the game," he said.

Managing the workload of three formats has become difficult and, thus, there are not too many fast-bowling all-rounders in world cricket currently. However, Klusener believes their time will come again.

“I always think it goes in cycles. When I played, there were a lot of fast-bowling allrounders… then we kind of saw the allrounders bowling spin.

“Certainly at this point in time, I don’t see as many fast-bowling allrounders, I just think it’s a cycle. We might just see in the next five years those kinds of cricketers coming through again. If we manage the workloads correctly there is a lot of cricket, there’s still a place for them in any team."

(With PTI Inputs)