India National Cricket Team all-rounder Hardik Pandya might be back in the captaincy role yet again in the white-ball cricket. As per the reports in Dainik Jagran, it is learned that his return to the leadership role will depend on the performance of the team in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
The reports claimed that Hardik Pandya will be back in the race for captaincy if Rohit Sharma fails to deliver with the bat and win the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 as a captain. The current India National Cricket Team skipper will be then sidelined, with the all-rounder taking over the leadership.
BCCI officials and Gautam Gambhir feel that a lot of injustice has been done to Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya, who was the vice-captain of the India National Cricket Team in the T20 World Cup 2024, was all set to take over the leadership of the team in T20Is. But in a drastic turn of events, he was taken out of the leadership group, and Suryakumar Yadav was appointed as the new captain.
This was because, the management didn’t want to give extra burden to Hardik Pandya, who is injury prone. But the reports in Dainik Jagran claimed that some key figures in BCCI and Gautam Gambhir feel that a lot of injustice has been done to the all-rounder and are backing him to become T20I captain.
They are of the opinion that Hardik Pandya wasn’t given captaincy in the name of ‘Fitness’ even when his performance was good. Notably, Suryakumar Yadav hasn’t been at his best with the bat ever since he took the leadership of the India National Cricket Team in T20Is.
Future of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be decided after the ICC Champions Trophy 2025
The reports also claimed that the future of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, which is under scanner, will be decided after the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The road for the two stalwarts of the team will be very tough if they fail to set the stage on fire in the tournament, which will begin on 19th February.
As per the reports, BCCI has given head coach Gautam Gambhir and selectors led by Ajit Agarkar free-hand to take any call for the betterment of the team. It is also learned that the future of Virat Kohli in Tests will be debatable as well.
The time has come to move forward – Source close to BCCI on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli
Just like Rohit Sharma, if Virat Kohli does not up his game, head coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar will have a big call to take. And if they don’t perform then they won’t be travelling to England for the Test series.
“The time has come to move forward. Did you see the performance in the Border Gavaskar Trophy? Their performance in the Ranji trophy? The next two series will be crucial,” the report quoted a source as saying
Both the stalwarts of Indian cricket also made a return to the Ranji Trophy 2024-25. However, both of them failed to get going. While Rohit registered scores of 3 and 28, Kohli managed just 6 runs in the one innings that he played.
Also read: ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Revealed – Why Nitin Menon and Javagal Srinath are missing from officials’ list?
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