Former Indian fielding coach R Sridhar has shared his views on BCCI’s decision to appoint Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain and not Hardik Pandya. However, Hardik was India’s vice-captain in their T20 World Cup campaign and he also played a key role in their win. However, chief selector Ajit Agarkar named workload management as one of the main reasons why they picked Suryakumar over Hardik, given his injury record. Sridhar also backed Agarkar’s opinion and felt that SKY had enough skill to lead the team as well.
R Sridhar said to Hindustan Times: “The very fact that Surya is someone who will be on the park for every match India is playing and not being bothered about workload monitoring is something which has tilted the scales in his favour, in terms of captaincy. Some of the matches he has captained India when Rohit and Hardik were not available, has given confidence to the BCCI that he can do an excellent job.”
However, R Sridhar also opined on Suryakumar’s time as vice-captain with the Kolkata Knight Riders. He had also led a handful of games for
the Mumbai Indians during the IPL 2023 season as well. Agarkar had spoken about feedback from the dressing room as another factor behind his appointment. R Sridhar also shared his views on Hardik Pandya’s contributions to the Indian Team’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign.
“I am sure Hardik will come back. He has just won you a World Cup, bowling that two crucial overs between 16 and 20. The last over obviously was fabulous from an Indian perspective. If he has got niggles, he will come back like how he has before,” he concluded.
Former India fielding coach R Sridhar has backed Shubman Gill to be India’s all-format captain after Rohit Sharma. Notably, Gill has been appointed as the vice-captain of the Indian T20I and ODI teams for the ongoing tour of Sri Lanka as well.
“On current form and going back to the potential they showed in the India-England Test series and even in the ODI games, I think these two are nailing their position in two formats, that is T20Is and Tests. Shubman Gill for me is an all-format player and I think he would be the apprentice to captain Rohit Sharma in Test matches and ODIs. I am sure India will see him as the captain post 2027 World Cup in all formats,” he shared.
