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Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa offered encouragement to Hardik Pandya following his loss of the T20I captaincy to Suryakumar Yadav. Uthappa advised Pandya to see the change positively and emphasized the importance of continuing to contribute to the national cricket team for the foreseeable future.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma retired from T20I cricket after leading India to victory in the T20 World Cup 2024. Hardik Pandya was considered a strong candidate to succeed Rohit as captain, having led the team in T20Is from December 2022 to October 2023. Despite also serving as vice-captain during the T20 World Cup 2024, Pandya was surpassed by Suryakumar Yadav, who was appointed T20I skipper by new coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar. Agarkar cited Pandya’s history of injuries and the need for careful workload management as factors influencing their decision to choose Suryakumar Yadav.
During a virtual interaction facilitated by Sony Sports Network, Robin Uthappa expressed his belief that relinquishing the captaincy could actually benefit Hardik Pandya by allowing him to prolong his career and make more substantial contributions to the team over the long haul.
“If I were in Hardik’s place, I would actually feel taken care of to a certain extent. If I’m 34-35 years old and I’m someone who’s been injury-prone through my career and a certain responsibility has been taken away from me with the mindset of extending my career and giving me the best chance to offer my services to my country for as long as possible, keeping that in view, I would actually say OK this is the best thing for me,” said Uthappa (via India Today).
Hardik Pandya remains a pivotal figure in the Indian team for white-ball cricket. As skipper of the Mumbai Indians, he brings crucial balance to the squad through his adept bowling and batting skills. His standout performance in the T20 World Cup 2024 was instrumental, where he amassed 144 runs across eight matches and clinched 11 wickets with an impressive economy rate of 7.64.
In his role as a commentator, the former cricketer shared that if he were in Hardik Pandya’s shoes, he would prioritize prolonging his career rather than leading the team. Uthappa conveyed that Pandya would likely embrace this decision positively, prioritizing serving the nation and contributing to victories over the captaincy role itself.
“If you asked me between the two what I would pick as a human being, I would say, serving my country and winning as many World Cup championships, irrespective of whether I was a captain or whether I was just a player. Knowing Hardik Pandya on a certain level, I would say he’d be someone saying it’s fine, their perspective is also right. They want a player of my quality and my caliber to be able to serve my country for as long as possible. And I would love to do that as well.”
Hardik Pandya is set to return to action in the upcoming three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, commencing with the first match at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Saturday, July 27. He chose to sit out the three-match ODI series during the same tour of Sri Lanka.
