"Wouldn't Be Surprising" - Scott Styris On Hardik Pandya Leading Indian T20I Side In The Near Future
Former Kiwi player Scott Styris said that Hardik Pandya’s character and leadership skills will bag him the captaincy role in the near future, at least in the shortest format of the game.
Hardik has led India in three T20Is so far and has won all the matches. Notably, he captained Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022 season and led them to their maiden title in the debut season.
“I wouldn’t be surprised maybe not for this tournament, but in the future that we do see Hardik Pandya leading this T20 team. I think it’s an intriguing discussion because again, six months ago, I don’t think it’s something we all thought would even be talked about, but Hardik has made every poster winner.”
“And you know, you see it a lot in football, where players of character and personality are often given the armband to be captain to also allow them to show some responsibility,” Styris told News18.
“Hardik Pandya certainly has the personality of today’s player” – Scott Styris
Styris felt that Hardik would be the right choice but the final decision will be left to the management and their view on the path they want to take in T20Is going forward.
“So, I don’t mind this for Hardik to be given some leadership in this side, whether now be the vice-captain or in the future as a captain because quite rightly what is the direction this Indian team wants to go, whether it’s T20 in terms of its brand, how do they want to play the game?”
“Because Hardik certainly has the personality of today’s player, where they want to go out and expand and show their skills and really just show off to everybody with how good they are. And I think that sort of leadership actually breeds itself and lends itself throughout the team to everybody playing with that style,” Styris added.
