New Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Ahmedabad team management's decision to make Hardik Pandya the captain of the new franchise surprised cricketing world. Many experts have given their opinion on the matter. Former Australian spinner, Brad Hogg is the latest to join the bandwagon. Hogg compared the all-rounder's body language to that of former Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
Hogg feels that Pandya could be a successful captain because of his determination, which embodies Kohli. The former player also noted that there is currently a bit of inexperience in the Ahmedabad camp.
While speaking on his YouTube channel, he said, "Pandya could be a very good captain because he is a bit like Kohli. He wants to go out there and dominate. He's got a body language that says, 'I'm here to beat you.'"
The Ahmedabad-based franchise picked all-rounder Pandya as their first draft followed by Afghanistan’s spin wizard Rashid Khan and India’s Shubman Gill. They have roped in former India pacer Ashish Nehra as their head coach. Nehra was earlier associated with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as an assistant coach.
“Hardik Pandya and Ashish Nehra are personalities that are excitable over at Ahmedabad. When they've got a team together, they have to understand there are different personalities as well. Don't go about giving 100 advice to a bowler at the top of the mark,” explained Hogg.
"Trust the players. When Nehra was the assistant coach at RCB, he was always on the edge of the rope giving advice, I did not like what I saw there. He does.
"I think they'll do a good job. Both are rather inexperienced in their roles, which could be an issue for Ahmedabad. Pandya captaining under Flower and Rahul under Nehra would have been a balance of experience over there," the chinaman bowler further added.
Pandya started his IPL career in 2015 with the Mumbai Indians. For seven seasons the hard hitting all-rounder represented the team in blue and gold. He was an integral part of the team title wins in 2015, 2017,2019 and 2020. This would be the first time that Pandya would play for a different franchise.
Pandya has scored 1476 runs in 92 IPL games at average of 27 and a strike rate of 153. He has also picked 60 wickets at average of 31.
