Hardik Pandya will have to bowl consistently for him to be considered all-rounder: Kapil Dev.
The 1983 World Cup-winning captain of India, Kapil Dev has questioned Hardik Pandya’s place in any team as an all-rounder. He reckons Pandya will have to showcase his bowling skills on regular basis in order to be called an all-rounder.
He said the colourful cricketer can’t be considered an all-rounder as he hasn’t bowled much in the last few years. Owing to his recurring injuries, Hardik expressed his inability to deliver his services with the ball during the entire IPL 2020, 2021 and even during the first match of the T20 World Cup 2021.
He sustained a serious back injury in 2019 and since then it has often troubled the cricketer. He sustained a shoulder injury recently to add more to his woes.
“He has to do both the jobs to be considered an all-rounder. He is not bowling so can we call him all-rounder? Let him bowl, he has come out from the injury,” said India’s cricket icon Kapil Dev while speaking at the Royal Calcutta Golf Course.
He further dwelled on the fact of how important Hardik is as far as India’s middle-order batting is concerned. Once upon a time, Hardik used to be a daunting cricketer who smacked bowlers for fun at death overs, however, the case isn’t the same of late.
He is an extremely important batter to the country, for bowling he has to play a lot more matches, perform and bowl and then we will say,” he added.
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Rahul Dravid will do better as a coach: Kapil Dev
Dev praised the new Indian head coach and former cricketer Rahul Dravid’s appointment as the coach of the formidable Indian team. He weights Dravid more as the coach than as a cricketer.
Rahul Dravid opened his account in international cricket as India’s coach with a whitewash against New Zealand in three matches T20I series. Rohit Sharma and co wiped out the kiwis to seal the series.
“He’s a good man, a good cricketer. He will do a better job as a coach than as a cricketer because in cricket nobody has done better than him. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed. You can’t just judge one after his debut, you don’t go by one performance. Over a period of time, what Rahul will do, we will come to know. You only think positive,” added Dev.
The former cricketer concluded but not before heaping praise over Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who are his current favourite all-rounders.
“I would say Ashwin, hats off to him. Jadeja… What a fabulous cricketer he is, but unfortunately, he improved as a batter and come down as a bowler to me,” concluded Kapil Dev.
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