"Hardik Pandya is rare to find"- Gautam Gambhir warned by Ravi Shastri's close aid

Former India fielding coach R Sridhar reckons that Hardik Pandya will make a comeback into the Indian team despite being out of the current ODI series against Sri Lanka.

Sridhar also felt that a player like Hardik Pandya is difficult to find and India must use him properly.

Hardik has gone through quite a lot in the last few months. The allrounder played a key role in India's T20 World Cup 2024 triumph.

Hardik was Rohit Sharma's deputy in the T20 World Cup 2024 and was expected to take over the role after Rohit's retirement.

But the selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir chose Suryakumar Yadav as India's new T20I captain as Hardik is injury-prone and has had several fitness issues throughout his career.

This meant Hardik was removed from the leadership group with Suryakumar Yadav as captain and Shubman Gill as vice-captain.

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R Sridhar breaks silence on Hardik Pandya's captaincy snub in T20Is

While speaking to Hindustan Times, R Sridhar backed Hardik to make a comeback in India's limited overs squads. He reckoned that a player like Hardik is crucial to India's success and the board must take good care of him so that he can play in the big ICC tournaments in the future.

"I am sure Hardik will come back. He has just won you a World Cup, bowling that too, 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 said.

"But Hardik is somebody rare to find, a cricketer like him is rare to find. We can take good care of him till the time he is playing cricket and making sure he is available for the marquee series and all the big ICC tournaments," he added.

After the T20 World Cup 2022 in which India lost to England by 10 wickets in the semi-final, senior players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were not selected in the T20I squads and Hardik Pandya was seen as India's next T20I captain. Pandya led India in 16 T20Is during that period, and India emerged victorious in 10 of them.

Constant injury concerns rule Hardik out of the captaincy race

But his constant fitness issues have kept him out of various important games for India. Most recently, he got injured midway through the ODI World Cup 2023.

While India did not feel his absence for most of the tournament, Hardik Pandya was dearly missed in the final against Australia where India needed a big player like him to make a vital contribution with both bat and ball.

His constant injury concerns propelled the selectors to move back to Rohit Sharma for the T20 World Cup 2024.

Both Rohit and Kohli made a comeback into the T20I team in the series against Bangladesh earlier this year. Both of them announced their retirements from the format after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2024.

Hardik Pandya is likely to play the upcoming domestic white-ball games for Baroda. He is likely to bowl his full quota of overs to prove his fitness for 50-over cricket.