Hardik Pandya is extremely confident about his own abilities: Ravi Shastri
The Indian T20 World Cup squad will have many new faces with team captain Hardik Pandya providing his inputs during the selection process, says former India head coach Ravi Shastri. Though Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will remain in the T20 scheme of things, the phase-out process began after the terrible semi-final exit in last year's global meet in Australia.
Shastri said, the T20 World Cup is coming up and there is a lot of talent among youth. I think they will look in a new direction. In this year's IPL, we have seen some refreshing new talent. There will be new faces, not a new team. Hardik is already captain of India, so he will continue unless he is not fit.
Just like the 2007 World Cup when India went with a relatively new team full of youngsters under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the same would happen in the upcoming tournament. The former head coach said, "Now they would go the 2007 T20 World Cup route and identify talent, and Hardik's ideas will be different and he would have played IPL, and seen a lot of other players as captain of IPL. He is the man who is going to take these guys out on the park, no one else, so whatever he says has to be given importance.
Shastri also wants all the cricketers to have priorities straight. "Don't even think of T20 World Cup till ODI World Cup is over, and after that, you have enough time for T20s." Shastri finds Hardik's decision-making skills the best when he is fit and leading from the front. "He is supremely confident about his abilities and the fact that he is fit now, makes a massive difference."
Those who are well aware know that Pandya might never play Test cricket again, as he needs to preserve his career after major lower back surgery. Since he now plays two formats (ODIs and T20Is), Shastri feels that even if he bowls, there won't be a lot of a workload. ODI World Cup is slated for October. They don't play any cricket after the IPL, probably 4-5 matches. It's not that he is playing three formats. You have Test matches and the moment Test series comes, he gets a corridor of a month to rest," he added.
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