Why Hardik Pandya was snubbed from India captaincy under coach Gautam Gambhir – explained

The Indian cricket team for the tour of Sri Lanka, which begins on July 27 with a T20I in Pallekele, is out. This is Gautam Gambhir’s first series as coach of the Indian cricket team and the teams selected for the three T20Is and three ODIs are very interesting. The biggest development is that Suryakumar Yadav, not Hardik Pandya, will lead the team in the three T20Is against Sri Lanka.

Before this, Yadav led the Indian T20I team against South Africa and Australia. Pandya was appointed India’s vice-captain in the T20 World Cup and it was expected that the next logical step would be to make him captain. However, with the appointment of Suryakumar Yadav as the Indian T20I captain, it can be assumed that Gautam Gambhir and Co. are looking at the Mumbai Indians batsman as a long-term prospect for the captaincy. Interestingly, Hardik Pandya was also not named vice-captain. Shubman Gill was appointed as the new vice-captain.

In fact, a report by news agency PTI earlier claimed that SKY could be named captain until the 2026 T20 World Cup.

So why was Hardik Pandya – a player who had a huge impact on India’s T20 World Cup victory – being rejected from the captaincy?

According to ESPNCricinfo, “fitness concerns and workload management tipped the scales” against Pandya. The star all-rounder took a long break after a freak ankle injury in the 2023 ODI World Cup. He made a comeback with the IPL. That was not all, as earlier Pandya often missed tournaments due to injuries.

Pandya, currently, is the best fast bowling all-rounder that India has. He is a rare commodity in Indian cricket. And if management wants to monitor their workload, they can’t be criticized.