Legendary captain Sourav Ganguly feels Hardik Pandya is still an asset for the Indian team in Test cricket. Pandya, who has been leading the T20I side in the past few months, last played a Test match way back in 2018. He has played just 11 Test matches in his career so far as he has out of the red-ball set-up to manage his workload. Pandya sustained a back injury in 2019 and also underwent the surgery for the same. He made his return to competitive cricket as a batter in 2020 as he took his time to regain bowling fitness. The flamboyant all-rounder came under the scanner for his fitness during the 2021 T20 World Cup as he took a short sabbatical after the tournament to work on his bowling and fitness. Pandya bounced back in IPL 2022 as he performed well with both bat and the ball while the cherry on the cake was his leadership as he guided Gujarat Titans to the IPL glory in their debut season.
Ganguly called Pandya a special cricketer and advised him to return to red-ball cricket.
“There will be specialists in T20s. There’s Hardik Pandya although I still feel he is an asset in Test cricket also and he should come back to Test cricket because that’s what he will be remembered for. He is a specialist in ODIs and T20Is. But he is a very special cricketer,” Ganguly told The Times of India.
The veteran cricketer also suggested that despite the big money involved in the shortest format, the majority of players still want to play all three formats of the game.
“I think money has nothing to do with how players play. It’s great that money has come into the sport and that’s how it should be. But I believe the majority of the players want to play all formats as long as they are good. It’s terrific to see how hungry these boys are,” Ganguly further said.
Talking about grooming the next India captain after Rohit Sharma, Ganguly feels that all eyes will be on IPL captains as performance in the franchise league can’t be ignored.
IPL is a good breeding ground. We have seen how well Hardik Pandya has captained in the IPL. That’s one of the reasons he has been captaining India in the shorter formats also. You can’t ignore wins and losses in the IPL because it’s a very tough tournament.
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