“Not able to understand”: Kris Srikkanth slams reasoning behind Hardik Pandya’s T20I captaincy snub

Former Indian World Cup winner, Krishnamachari Srikkanth praised India’s newly-appointed captain for the T20I series against Sri Lanka, Suryakumar Yadav and said that he has qualities to lead the team. Though, he trusts Suryakumar with the captaincy, however he wasn’t in favour of buying the reasoning that Team India’s chief selector, Ajit Agarkar gave for not naming Hardik Pandya as the T20I captain.

“Feedback from the dressing room? I am not able to understand that. Yes, Suryakumar has the qualities to be captain. I agree to that. He could prove to be a very good captain. But the reasons for dropping Hardik Pandya as captain are beating around the bush in terms of the reasoning,” Srikkanth said.

“Fitness is something that I will not agree. He played the entire IPL. He also bowled. Yes, he might not have done well (in the IPL). That’s another issue. Mumbai Indians didn’t qualify. At the World Cup, he was the vice-captain and he played well. So, fitness is something that I won’t agree with,” he added.

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Hardik’s removal from leadership came despite his strong performance in the T20 World Cup, scoring 144 runs and taking 11 wickets in 8 games. He also played a crucial role in the final match against South Africa by taking the massive wickets of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller.