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There was no need to undermine Indian cricketers nor was there a need to entertain any force within the team to undermine key players, especially after India won the T20 World Cup. Instead of soaking up this historic T20 World Cup win after 17 years, national selector Ajit Agarkar, on the recommendation of the outgoing T20 captain Rohit Sharma, decided to do away with Hardik Pandya as a full-time T20 leader on the ground that he doesn’t have full fitness. When he was a key player for India in the T20 World Cup campaign, was there any need to change the pecking order?
It was calculated that between 2022 and 2024 T20 World Cups, India played 80 T20 games out of which Hardik didn’t even play 50 of them. Was that it? Leadership changes, especially following a significant victory like a T20 World Cup, from one power centre to the other was the natural course of action. But Hardik’s unceremonious removal didn’t really align with the team’s long-term goals. If Hardik is a significant leader and performer, addressing his fitness and leadership role should have been handled delicately to keep the team united and focused.
In other words, not giving the T20 captaincy to Hardik was done in haste and now it is emerging that India losing to Sri Lanka by a 2-0 margin in the three-match ODI series is an extension of all the confusion the Indian team management created after winning the T20 World Cup. Clearly, someone has an axe to grind against Hardik and seeing the way the established cricketers are being treated by the team management, it is heading towards total anarchy.
Otherwise, how on earth can you justify the chopping of KL Rahul from the playing XI of the third ODI match against Sri Lanka? Rahul led India in the ODI series against South Africa and won the series for his country. In the midst of all the talk about Rohit and Virat Kohli not playing the Sri Lanka series, there were news reports on how Rahul could be the captain of the ODI team against Sri Lanka.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, both Rohit and Virat played the series, but dropping Rahul like dropping Hardik from T20 captaincy has shaken the basic foundation of trust in the Indian dressing room. If this is how it is going to work, the trust deficit is going to do a lot of damage to this Indian team. If there is no job security in the team and if there is no fixed batting order in the side, what can one expect from this team? Coupled with India’s ability not to play spin bowlers well, it has compounded the problem further.
How will India come out of this crisis? In the first place, there was no crisis at all. India are the second best ODI team in the world after Australia and losing to Sri Lanka or rather submitting to the Lankan spin attack has exposed this team massively. Like no one expected India to lift the T20 World Cup, no one expected India to lose to Sri Lanka. But it has happened and how it happened is right in front of us. How will India come out of this before the Champions Trophy is something only time can tell. All we can say is that it is a pathetic start to coach Gautam Gambhir’s coaching stint!
