Irfan Pathan cautions India about appointing Hardik Pandya as white-ball captain

Hardik Pandya (Source: Twitter)

India's ace all-rounder Hardik Pandya became an instant hit among the masses after he led his side Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in their inaugural season. His captaincy skills became the talk of the town as his game with both bat and ball flourished.

With the series against Sri Lanka lined up and regular skipper Rohit Sharma rested, the right-hander has again been handed over the captaincy duties on an interim basis for the T20 games. Previously, he was in charge of the Men in Blue during their successful series against Ireland and New Zealand.

However, with an eye on the future, Pandya is considered to be a serious candidate to take over the reins from Sharma. But former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has warned against going ahead with this move without proper deliberation.

Pathan, who was India's prime all-round weapon at one stage has asked to be careful with Pandya as his fitness issues could pose a problem in the future for the Indian side and management.

“The captaincy Hardik has done, whether it was for the Gujarat Titans in the IPL or at the start for India, I felt the communication was extremely good. He was seen as very agile,

“When there was talk about his captaincy, I was extremely impressed with his approach but along with that India will have to keep in mind that if you are making him the long-term captain, they will have to concentrate a lot on his fitness, whether you talk about him or the team management. It will be very crucial going ahead.”

The chances of him getting injured would increase as his workload would increase and it would be extremely difficult for him to receive proper rest and recovery in time.

Hardik would next be seen captaining India in the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka after which both sides clash in the ODI series.

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