"Surya is someone who will be on the park"- R Sridhar on Suryakumar Yadav becoming India's T20I captain
Former Indian fielding coach R Sridhar has opened up on BCCI's decision to appoint Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain and not Hardik Pandya. Hardik was India's vice-captain in their T20 World Cup campaign and also played a crucial role in their triumph.
However, chief selector Ajit Agarkar named workload management as one of the main reasons why they chose Suryakumar over Hardik, given the latter's injury record. Sridhar echoed Agarkar's opinion and felt that SKY had enough credit in the bank to be bestowed the responsibility of captaining the T20I side.
Here's what R Sridhar had to say about Suryakumar Yadav to Hindustan Times:
"The very fact that Surya is someone who will be on the park for every match India is playing and not being bothered about workload monitoring is something which has tilted the scales in his favour, in terms of captaincy.
"Some of the matches he has captained India, when Rohit and Hardik were not available, has given confidence to the BCCI that he can do an excellent job."
R Sridhar also highlighted Suryakumar's spell as vice-captain with the Kolkata Knight Riders. He had also captained a handful of games for the Mumbai Indians during the IPL 2023 season. Agarkar had spoken about feedback from the dressing room as another factor behind the Mumbai batter's appointment.
"I am sure Hardik will come back" - R Sridhar
R Sridhar also opened up on Hardik Pandya's contributions to the Men in Blue's victorious T20 World Cup campaign. The all-rounder scored 144 runs at a strike rate of more than 150 and also picked up 11 wickets.
On this, Sridhar said:
"I am sure Hardik will come back. He has just won you a World Cup, bowling that two crucial overs between 16 and 20. The last over obviously was fabulous from an Indian perspective. If he has got niggles, he will come back like how he has before."
Sridhar spoke about how rare an asset Hardik Pandya is in Indian cricket. He added that looking after the all-rounder was the way to go ahead especially with ICC tournaments like the Champions Trophy 2025 lined up.