Kolkata: Former chairman of the selection committee Krishnamachari Srikkanth spoke on the road for India ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2024.
He said, “See if I was the Chairman of the selection committee, I would say that Hardik Pandya should be the captain of the 2024 World Cup, straight away, I’d put it that way – number one. And start rebuilding a side right from today, that is from the New Zealand series which is going to happen in a weeks’ time.”
“You start from today, the preparation for the World cup, you need to understand, starts 2 years in advance. So, you do whatever you want to do, the trial and error policy, do whatever you want, try it for one year, then you form a team and by 2023 make sure this is going to be at the level that is going to play the World Cup. And as both Bish and Irfan pointed out, you need more fast-ball all-rounders. Let’s see, 1983 World Cup, 2011 World Cup, 2007 T20 World Cup, why did we win? We had many fast-ball all-rounders and semi all-rounders. So, to identify these guys – guys like Hooda, like Hooda, there are going to be so many more Hoodas.”
Speaking exclusively on Star Sports show ‘Match Point’, former Indian fast bowling all-rounder Irfan Pathan spoke on the importance of having a group of leaders in the squad who can take the team forward and having Hardik Pandya as captain of the T20 side, he said “So, I’m not saying that if you change the captain you change the result, if you go like that you’re not going to change the result. And with Hardik Pandya, you need to understand, we all need to understand, that he’s a fast bowling all-rounder. He has injury issues as well. What if he is your captain who is getting injured right before the World cup? And if you don’t have any other leader ready, you’ll be in a mess.”
“So, what I personally think is that Hardik Pandya is a leader, who has done very well in the Gujarat Titians, won IPL, won the championship trophy. You need to find not one, but two leaders going forward to build their mark. You know just like we talk about openers – we need to have a group of openers, we also need to have a group of leaders,” he said.
Speaking exclusively on Star Sports show ‘Match Point’, former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop spoke on the selectors making the right choices in the future and the amount of talent available in India, he said ”That has always been what selection has always been about, if it was that simple of choosing the guys who are on top of the statistics, you wouldn’t need a selector. Anyone can go and make a base and make a team, but you have to see beyond the numbers, who is playing what bowling well in what conditions, who is playing the hard games.”
“So, that’s where the real selector earns his money. Look, I still think that there’s a kid called Mohsin Khan who plays in the IPL. And that’s another one that I can recall as well, there are several highly talented players who are still in the nation. I think the talent is there to win the World Cup, it’s just a matter of picking the right people at the right time, there’s just too much talent available,” he added.
