Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif slammed India's newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar after they appointed Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain for India ahead of the Sri Lanka series. Hardik Pandya was the hot contender to be Rohit Sharma's successor after he announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game because he was the vice-captain for the team in all the major ICC events since 2022.
But the cricket board appointed star batter Suryakumar Yadav as Rohit's successor in T20I. Chief selector Agarkar explained that fitness is the main reason why Hardik was not chosen as Rohit's successor in the shortest format. However, Latif opined that fitness is just an excuse for not making Hardik the captain and said if the selectors claim that the all-rounder has fitness concerns, then they should give him an unfit certificate.
"No, here they (the claims) just hand him a certificate saying he isn't fit and there are concerns about his fitness. There are plenty of players who weren't super fit but still became great captains. So, I think it was just an excuse. Because if Surya wasn't around, then Rishabh (Pant) would have been the captain since you have to look at the future," Latif said on his youtube channel.
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Ajit Agarkar for Hardik Pandya
In a press conference before India left for the Sri Lanka tour, Agarkar revealed the reason why Hardik was not chosen as Rohit's successor in the shortest format.
"Hardik's skill-sets are difficult to find and fitness is difficult to find. we have got a bit more time and we can look at a few things. Fitness was a clear challenge and we wanted someone who was likely to be available more often," Agarkar said. "We have taken general feedback from the dressing room also," he added.
Hardik will feature in the T20I as a player because the cricket board have appointed Shubman Gill as the vice-captain for the side. Team India will play three T20Is against Sri Lanka which are scheduled to start from July 27.
India's squad for T20 series against Sri Lanka:
Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.
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