“Questions are being raised,” ex-Indian cricketer claims Rohit Sharma is back only due to Hardik Pandya’s INJURY  

Hardik Pandya injured his ankle against Bangladesh in the 2023 ODI World Cup and since then has not played a single match of cricket.

“Questions are being raised,” ex-Indian cricketer claims Rohit Sharma is back only due to Hardik Pandya’s INJURY  

Rohit Sharma has returned as T20 captain due to Hardik Pandya's ankle injury (Image via ESPN)

Hardik Pandya was the captain for the T20I side as Rohit Sharma was not selected for unknown reasons. Ever since the 2022 T20 World Cup, Pandya has captained in four T20 series. After getting injured in the ODI World Cup, Pandya was ruled out for four months, which led to Suryakumar Yadav leading in his absence. 

Yadav captained for two series before getting injured against South Africa. With Pandya and Yadav out, Sharma returned as the T20 captain for the Afghanistan series, which has three T20s. This was his first T20I since November 2022, where he captained India in a World Cup semi-final loss to England. 

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Former Indian cricketer and BCCI General Manager, Saba Karim, believes Pandya’s injury has forced the Indian team selectors to bring in Sharma as captain, adding that the selectors want experience. 

The selectors had shown faith in Hardik Pandya as a captain but questions are being raised because of Hardik Pandya's injury. That's why the selectors have gone back to Rohit Sharma to bring stability, both as a captain and a batter. 
Saba Karim on Sports 18

Both Sharma and Virat Kohli have returned to the T20I team after a gap of 14 months. The team is also without Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas Iyer. Ishan Kishan, who had pulled out of the South Africa tour citing burnout, hasn’t returned. 

India squad for the 3-match T20 series with Afghanistan: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar

Former selector wants Hardik Pandya to be fit to retain captaincy 

Since November 2022, Hardik Pandya has been captaining the Indian T20I but has missed out on the last two series against Australia and South Africa due to injury. He is also set to miss the T20I series against Afghanistan, with Rohit Sharma set to return as captain. Former Indian team keeper and former selector, Kiran More, believes the all-rounder can return to captaincy, but needs to fulfill some conditions. 

Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya has missed over four months of cricket and will return in the IPL, just before the 2024 T20 World Cup (Image via ESPN)
Firstly, Hardik needs to get fit. He needs to start playing cricket first, that's extremely necessary. Once he does that, Hardik Pandya definitely ticks all the boxes. He has also been the captain earlier.
Kiran More told Sports 18

More was also confused on who would captain the Indian side in the 2024 T20 World Cup. He is sure Pandya would return to the playing 11, but was unsure whether it would be him or Sharma captaining in the World Cup. 

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