Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan has backed Hardik Pandya to be India’s full-time T20I captain. It is also noteworthy that, the Indian team management is thinking about the split captaincy considering Rohit Sharma’s workload management and busy cricketing schedule as well. However, Rashid Khan has many memories of playing under Hardik’s captaincy when he played for the Gujarat Titans (GT) which won the Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy in their maiden season earlier this year as well.

While talking about that, Rashid Khan told IANS: “Pandya is a fantastic player. I think he deserves to be captain of the national side. I have played under him. I will be more than happy if he is made permanent captain of the India T20 side. It is difficult to manage players and he understands it so well and did his job brilliantly in the IPL. I will be more than happy if he gets that chance. And I wish him all the best for that, also I am waiting to be part of Gujarat Titans again next year and play under him.”

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However, Rashid Khan had a stunning season while playing under Hardik Pandya in IPL where he picked up 19 wickets in the tournament as well. Moreover, Pandya led India for the first time against Ireland in July 2022 and also in the recently concluded series against New Zealand, where India won by 1-0.

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He said: “If people are saying, you feel good about it) but till something happens officially, you can’t say. To be honest, my thing is simple, if I do one match or one series, I will lead the team my way, how I see and perceive the game. Whenever I am given the opportunity, I will always go out and play the brand of cricket I know. As a unit, we will display my brand. As far as whatever (captaincy) comes in future, we will see.”