The Indian cricket team kicks off the post-T20 World Cup 2022 era with Hardik Pandya captaining the New Zealand tour. While Rohit Sharma is still the designated skipper in all three formats, he has been given a hiatus from the series with Hardik taking on the role of the tour. There are a number of former cricketers and pundits who have backed Hardik to succeed Rohit as India’s skipper in the shortest format. However, former Pakistani cricketer Salman Butt is unconvinced by what he has seen from the Indian all-rounder as far as leadership skills are concerned.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Butt was asked about Hardik’s prospects as skipper of India in the near future. However, the retired Pakistani cricketer does not think Rohit Sharma should be ousted as India captain just because he failed to win the T20 World Cup 2022.
“I don’t know who sees him as captain and who looks at such dreams. He has talent and has tasted success in the IPL. But even Rohit Sharma has been successful in the IPL five to six times. If he had scored well in a few matches (in the T20 World Cup 2022) people would not have talked about this change at the top,” he said.
“In the Asian subcontinent, people start talking about such drastic and big changes pretty quickly. Not all of them, but quite a few, who probably don’t understand how these things work. Sometimes, just to express an opinion, people say, ‘change the captain,” he added.
Butt further believed that only one captain can win the 12-team World Cup. That does not mean that the other 11 captains have to be changed.
“Only one captain has won the World Cup, the rest of the teams have lost. Will you replace the captains of all 11 teams because they lost the World Cup?” he assured.
Hardik was due to lead the Indian team in the first T20I against New Zealand on Friday in Wellington. But due to persistent rain at the venue, the game was halted with no ball being bowled.
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