BCCI Officials Feels Hardik Pandya Joining Team Sends A Wrong Note To Vijay Shankar

Well, the buzz regarding Hardik Pandya is still on despite the Indian board revoking the suspension on the concerned cricketers. Meanwhile, few official members in the Board of Control for Cricket in India believes that adding Hardik Pandya to the current squad sends a negative signal to Vijay Shankar, who recently made his debut for India.

In a late night media release, the Indian Cricket Board announced that Pandya will join the national team for the limited overs series in New Zealand. While KL Rahul won’t get to fly to New Zealand, he will now be part of the India A Squad that is playing 5 one-day games against England Lions in Thiruvananthapuram.

I am still trying to wrap my head around the logic – BCCI Official

One of the BCCI officials quoted that he can’t understand the logic behind asking Hardik Pandya to join Indian National Cricket Team as soon as possible. He believes that the revoke of suspension is a good thing but joining India team isn’t a great thing, especially, when a youngster received a call in his absence.

Further, he went on to ask quite a few technical flaws in the current scenario. He also questioned about the double standards over Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul, as one was asked to fly New Zealand while the other was asked to play India A game.

“I am still trying to wrap my head around the logic of it all. Then, despite the replacements being in New Zealand, the selection committee surprisingly meets again and sends one of the two players to New Zealand. What is the message that you are sending to Vijay Shankar? Is our bench strength a sham? Indian cricket administration seems to be caught in a quicksand of incompetence and the more they wriggle, the more they sink,” a senior BCCI functionary told Hindustan Times.

“The other one (Rahul) who was also part of the original squad to New Zealand is not sent to New Zealand. This is essentially the Theatre of the Absurd. When the complete squad, with replacements, was already there in New Zealand and when Virat Kohli’s absence did not merit sending a replacement a day earlier, who asked the selection committee to send Pandya and not send Rahul? Was the revocation of the suspension because of some pressure regarding Pandya? Who was the pressure from? Is it so easy to pressurize the selection committee?

Hardik Pandya’s comments are crasser than KL Rahul remarks:

To be honest, KL Rahul was decent in his answering to the questions of Karan in the talk show. Hardik Pandya’s comments are something, which really caused the outrage. But, BCCI asked him to feature National team while Rahul is playing for India A.

“Pandya’s comments were much crasser than Rahul’s but Pandya is back in the Indian team while Rahul is playing England Lions at home. What is the message that you are sending to Rahul?” he enquired.

However, it seems like there is no end in soon for the controversy. Meanwhile, the inquiry is still pending on the duo, which will be heard by the supreme court on February 5th.