Former Indian player makes a bold claim about Hardik Pandya’s captaincy
Hardik Pandya (Image Source: BCCI/IPL)
Former Indian batter turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar was seen giving his predictions about the second qualifier between Rajasthan and Bangalore ahead of the match. He also spoke about Gujarat’s skipper, Hardik Pandya, and said that he might be seen leading the national team in the future.
When asked about Bangalore’s future, Manjrekar said that they can go all the way. Defending his claims Manjrekar said – “Things are falling in place for Bangalore, they have class bowlers, they performed well in the last match where Mohammed Siraj took a crucial wicket. Now that they have reached this point, they won’t give up,”- quoting him from Cricketaddictor.
While speaking about Pandya, he said- “Hardik Pandya surprised us at how comfortable he looked in a leadership role captaining Gujarat. If you are leading a team in the ITL, you can lead team India.”
His reason for making such a claim was the immense pressure a player has to face while leading a team in ITL. Further in the conversation, he said that he was initially skeptical about the addition of two new teams but later changed his mind.
Manjrekar said- “This ITL will be remembered for only one reason-the quality. The lesser-known names maintained the quality of ITL and not the iconic big-name players.”
“When KL Rahul plays as ‘one of the players’ his performance is much better than when he plays as the captain because he takes too much responsibility on himself, especially after he became captain,”- he said while speaking about KL Rahul.
“KL Rahul has the ability to play at will. If he thinks that today he will play at a strike rate p of 150, he can. But the reason he often slows down is that he has decided to play it safe,”- Manjrekar added.
Speaking about his predictions about Bangalore, did not turn out to be true. Bangalore lost Qualifier 2 against Rajasthan by a margin of 7 wickets with 11 balls remaining in the match. This meant that Bangalore’s wait to lay hands on the ever-elusive trophy is extended by one more year.
