"He has done everything possible right" - Gautam Gambhir picks Hardik Pandya's captaincy as one of the positives for India

Gautam Gambhir has picked Hardik Pandya's captaincy as one of the positives for India from the recently concluded T20I series against Sri Lanka.

The Men in Blue registered a 2-1 win in the three-match series. They won the series decider in Rajkot by a massive margin of 91 runs after the Lankan Lions had drawn parity with a win in the second T20I in Pune.

During an interaction on the Star Sports show 'Follow the Blues', Gambhir heaped praise on Pandya's leadership, saying:

"I think a lot of positives in this series. I think Hardik's captaincy, you have got to probably give it to him because he has done everything possible right what was asked of his captaincy."

Gambhir picked Umran Malik, Suryakumar Yadav and Rahul Tripathi as some of the gains for India, elaborating:

"More importantly, the way the young bowlers bowled - Umran Malik. Suryakumar Yadav's batting, the cameo from Rahul Tripathi. So I believe there have been excellent signs in this series from this young team."

Umran, with seven scalps, was the highest wicket-taker in the series. Suryakumar scored a fifty and a match-winning century in the last two games. Tripathi smoked 35 runs off 16 balls in Rajkot to give the initial momentum to the Indian innings.

"It's very difficult to look beyond Suryakumar Yadav" - Gautam Gambhir on India's performer of the series

Suryakumar Yadav smashed his third T20I century in the final game against Sri Lanka. [P/C: BCCI]

Gambhir was asked to pick his performer of the series, to which he responded:

"It's very difficult to look beyond Suryakumar Yadav with the kind of innings he played at Rajkot. But he is an established cricketer. I feel that Umran Malik was probably very, very impressive. A young bowler who bowled with pace, but despite that the accuracy with which he bowled, he is a huge positive."

Suryakumar Yadav has not even played half matches than Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, but he is nearing them in this list 🔥

Will he end up as India's best ever T20 batter? 💪

#SKY #ViratKohli #RohitSharma https://t.co/3V1Lkim195

The former Indian opener was further asked about his thoughts on Pandya's captaincy, to which he replied:

"Hardik was pretty impressive the way he captained the side. There were times when we thought that he should have bowled first but then he did the complete opposite of that but still was very professional the way he handled his team."

Skipper @hardikpandya7 reflects on #TeamIndia's massive victory in the final T20I and has words of praise for his young brigade, and his ascendence in captaincy.

Tune-in to the Mastercard #INDvSL ODI Series, starting Jan 10, 12:30 PM onwards on Star Sports & Disney+Hotstar. https://t.co/kHZrmJicY7

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the Indian skipper was positive, relaxed and attacking at the same time. He added that the recently appointed captain has taken those baby steps really well and expressed hope of him getting even better going forward.