Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar backed all-rounder Hardik Pandya to win matches for the Blues in the T20 World Cup 2024 where Rohit Sharma’s side will begin their campaign against Ireland on June 5.
Pandya struggled greatly in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 with the ball or the bat as he only managed to score 216 runs at an average of 18 and 143.04 strike rate this season and with the ball, he bagged 11 wickets.
However, Gavaskar believes that with the burden of captaincy gone, he will deliver in the T20 World Cup and will win matches for India.
“With the worries of captaincy gone Hardik might do well. The worries of the captain are greater when your team is not doing well. When your team is losing, you are worried about the batters and the bowlers and not on your own performance,” Gavaskar said.
“And that’s when your own performance can suffer. I am going to predict that he is going to be a big game changer for India and win matches for India with both bat and ball.”
In the warm-up match against Bangladesh, Pandya smashed 40 runs from 23 balls, including three sixes in one over, which is nothing more than good news for Rohit Sharma as the all-rounder is expected to be in India’s playing XI during the World Cup.
India will commence their campaign against Ireland on June 5, followed by a match against Pakistan on June 9.
India’s squad for World Cup
Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj.
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.
Schedule of India’s matches
India vs Ireland — June 5 (New York)
India vs Pakistan — June 9 (New York)
India vs USA — June 12 (New York)
India vs Canada — June 15 (Lauderhill)
- Hardik Pandya
