As per recent reports, the Indian men’s cricket team is set to appoint all-rounder Hardik Pandya as the vice-captain of the T20I side. Pandya has been in line with KL Rahul dealing with injuries for the majority of 2022. The Gujarat all-rounder was appointed as the vice-captain for the South Africa series at home where he had an excellent performance with both bat and ball.
The news has been communicated by a senior source from the BCCI, who addressed how Hardik Pandya has shown some great promise when given leadership roles in the recent past like the IPL, the Ireland and South Africa tour.
“Hardik Pandya is a world-class player and it’s great to have him back in the team at full fitness. Whether he will be named vice-captain is up to the selectors. But he is already a leader in the group. As an all-rounder, he understands both situations. He has outstanding leadership skills and we saw that in the IPL. He will surely do well,” a senior BCCI official said.
However, KL Rahul will continue his role as the vice-captain of the ODI and Test teams. In the absence of Rohit Sharma, he will lead the team with Jasprit Bumrah set to be his vice-captain. Bumrah also was given a key leadership assignment as he captained the Indian team in the rescheduled fifth Test against England at Edgbaston.
Talking about Test cricket, Hardik Pandya’s run as India’s premium all-rounder in the longest format took a halt because of injuries. But with his recent return, Hardik hasn’t been fully cleared to continue to play Tests.
According to InsideSport, Hardik Pandya will not be playing in all three formats to manage his workload as per a BCCI official.
"It’s important to manage his workload being an all-rounder. We have a lot of T20s and ODIs coming up and it will not be possible for an all-rounder to play all three formats. Instead, he will focus on white-ball formats. As for Tests, we have Jadeja and Shardul for the all-rounder slots and they have done well. Once Deepak comes back from injury, he will also be considered for Tests,” he said.