I'm not here to prove anything to anybody: Hardik Pandya

Stand-in Indian skipper Hardik Pandya took to his first press conference before the Indian side faces Ireland in a two-match t20 series. This will be Hardik’s first assignment as the Indian skipper, though the player seems unfazed and showed no signs of nerves while talking to the journalists during the press conference.

While talking about the bench strength present in the team, the GT skipper had this to say, “If you look at the last performances, players have been performing to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately, if there is ever an injury, we have many players on the bench who can fill in the spots. We talk about knocking on the doors of the national side, and some people have smashed the door wide open to make way into the team,”

The player has covered a long route of struggles on his way to stardom. When he was asked whether he preferred being the one to divide responsibilities or carry them, the skipper was to the point with his answer.

“I’ve always loved taking responsibilities; that’s why I’m here today. I always have before well under pressure; even when I wasn’t the captain of the side, I knew my individual responsibilities and tried to perform my best to fulfil them. I’ve always been more confident when it comes to my own skills because I am responsible for what happens when I take to the field,”

The most exciting part of the press conference came when a journalist asked the skipper how was he thinking about the series to display his skills as a captain since the lack of games does not give him enough to show his skills, and with senior players coming in, what did he think of his chances as the future skipper, Pandya had a fitting reply, as he mentioned he was just there to do his job and didn’t care about what happens in the future.

“I’m not here to show anything to anybody. I’ve got an opportunity to lead India. That itself is a big opportunity for me. I don’t see or play this sport to show anything to anybody, so yeah, if I’m good enough, I’ll see that in the future, so for now, I’ll try to do what I can do in this series,”

India seems to be hot favourites as they gear up to face Ireland in the two-match series. The first game between the two sides will take place in Dublin on the 26th of June from 09:00 PM (IST).