Sanjay Bangar, former India batting coach, expressed his belief that following Rohit Sharma’s retirement from T20Is, Hardik Pandya should have been the natural choice to take over as India’s T20I captain. Pandya served as the vice-captain during India’s successful T20 World Cup 2024 campaign under Sharma’s leadership, culminating in a title victory. However, despite expectations that Pandya would assume the captaincy post Sharma’s retirement, selectors and newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir surprisingly opted for Suryakumar Yadav.
Reports suggest that the selectors had reservations about Pandya’s consistent fitness issues, which have led to his absence from several crucial matches for India in the past. In order to manage Pandya’s workload and ensure team stability, they opted for Yadav as a safer choice for the T20I captaincy.
Sanjay Bangar slams BCCI for the treatment of Hardik Pandya
While speaking on ‘Follow the Blues’ show on Star Sports, Sanjay Bangar opened up about the shocking decision to choose Suryakumar Yadav over Hardik Pandya as India’s next T20I captain.
Bangar felt that although Suryakumar Yadav has enough experience in domestic cricket to lead the Indian side, there has been injustice to Hardik Pandya, who was India’s vice-captain earlier.
“It’s not that Suryakumar Yadav has played less domestic cricket before playing international cricket. So he has a lot of experience, I think he has led Mumbai in domestic cricket as well and knows how to extract the best from the players,” Bangar mentioned.
“So there is nothing wrong in Suryakumar being made the captain. I fully believe that he will do a good job but I still feel a little injustice has been meted out to Hardik,” the former India allrounder reckoned.Bangar expressed his surprise at the decision and felt that Hardik could have been India’s captain last year if he hadn’t got injured. He also expresses his concerns about the sudden change in the selectors’ thinking.
“I am a bit surprised as far as Hardik not being the captain of the T20 team is concerned because even before the previous T20 World Cup it seemed like if Rohit hadn’t become the captain and Hardik hadn’t gotten injured at that time, Hardik only would have become the captain,” he reasoned in the same discussion,” Bangar elaborated.
“The Indian team had started going in that direction. The selectors had also found that path. I find this sudden U-turn slightly troubling. We have certainly read that the chairman of the selection committee and the coach have spoken to Hardik Pandya,” he added.
“Hardik will be deeply hurt” – Sanjay Bangar
Bangar also added that Hardik Pandya would be hurt by missing out on the opportunity to lead his country despite being so close.
“As a player, you are always understanding what the selectors are trying to do, what the new coach is trying to do but deep within himself, I am pretty sure that Hardik will be deeply hurt that he is not being considered for T20 captaincy,” he stated.
Hardik Pandya has captained India in 16 T20Is, achieving victories in 10 of those matches. Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav has led India in seven T20Is and secured victories in five of them. Yadav’s upcoming challenge as captain will commence with the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka starting on July 27th.
