Wellington: India’s T20 captain Hardik Pandya for T20 New Zealand series on Wednesday brushed aside former England player Michael Vaughan’s “India as the most underperforming white-ball team in the history of world cricket” remark, by saying that the players don’t need “to prove anything to anyone.”
“Obviously when you don’t do well, people will have their opinion, which we respect. I understand people have different points of view. Being at the international level, I don’t think we need to prove anything to anyone,” Pandya told reporters here.
Vaughan had called India as “the most underperforming white-ball team in the history of world cricket” in his column for the Daily Telegraph.
“It’s a sport, you keep trying to get better and eventually when the result is supposed to happen it will happen. There are things we need to work on, going forward we will rectify and work on it,” he added.
India are all set to take on New Zealand in a three-match T20I and ODI series, starting with the first T20I here on November 18.
Most of the senior players like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli have been rested for this series, with Pandya appointed as the captain to lead in the T20Is.
The absence of the senior players provides a great opportunity for the youngsters to prove their mettle and Pandya is excited to see them perform in the series.
“A lot of the main players are not here but at the same time the players who are already here are also playing for India for the last couple years. So, they have also had ample time in international cricket to express themselves and show what they can do. Very excited for them, it’s a new bunch, new guys with a lot of new energy. So, it will be quite exciting to watch them play,” he said.
Pandya also went on to talk about India’s big loss in the T20 World Cup semifinal to England. He said that although they are very disappointed with the way things turned out, they need to cope with it and move forward to deliver better performances in the upcoming contests.
“The disappointment is there but we are professionals and we need to cope up with it. We have to cope up with our failures in the same way we treat success and should move forward to get better and rectify our mistakes,” he said.
The T20Is will conclude with the third match in Napier on 22 November and the ODIs will kick off in Auckland on 25 November.
The tour will come to an end with the third ODI in Christchurch on 30 November.
