Former India head coach Ravi Shastri said that there is no harm in Men in Blue identifying a new captain for their T20I unit and if that captain is Hardik Pandya, so be it.
This comes after India prepares for New Zealand for a three-match T20I series under Hardik’s captaincy, who leads a young Team India with the likes of Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Umran Malik, and Deepak Hooda vying for a permanent place in the Indian team.
In the aftermath of India’s exit from the T20 World Cup 2022 after its semi-final loss to England, there had been a clamor to move towards the new way of playing T20I cricket, the more fearless way of batting as India only made 40 runs in powerplay overs once in the entire tournament.
Rohit Sharma’s captaincy also came under severe criticism as England hammered India in the semi-final by 10 wickets, chasing down 169 with Jos Buttler and Alex Hales making 80* and 86*.
"For T20 cricket, there is no harm in having a new captain. Because the volume of cricket is such that for one player, to play all three formats of the game is never going to be easy. If Rohit is already leading in Tests and ODIs, there is no harm in identifying a new T20I captain and if his name is Hardik Pandya, so be it," said Shastri during a select media call organized by Prime Video.
Shastri also echoed the same sentiment as stand-in coach VVS Laxman, who had stated that there would be more T20 specialists playing for India in the shortest format.
He said: "I think that is the way forward, I think VVS is right. They will identify specialists. Going forward, that should be the mantra. Identify and make that Indian side into a terrific fielding side and identify roles for these youngsters who can be fearless and play that kind of cricket without any kind of baggage."
India will play three T20Is against New Zealand on November 18,20, and 22.
(NDTV inputs)
