From having an uncertain future and clouded with fitness concerns to now being handed the captaincy duties, 28-year-old Hardik Pandya has had quite a memorable three months. Pandya, who led the Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 glory, is the vice-captain for the ongoing T20I series versus South Africa.
Hardik Pandya Named Captain Of Team India
The Baroda all-rounder has been named as the captain of the 17-man squad announced by the BCCI on Wednesday to take on Ireland in a 2-T20I series later this month. The two T20Is will be played in Malahide, Dublin, on June 26 and 28.
Rishabh Pant, the captain for the South Africa series, and Shreyas Iyer will join the Test squad in England.
Tripathi, Samson named in the squad:
Rahul Tripathi gets his maiden India call-up while Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav return to the T20I squad. Tripathi had impressed everyone with his exploits in the IPL – scoring 413 runs at strike rate of 158.23.
Samson, who featured in the Sri Lanka series prior to the IPL, was dropped for the South Africa series after an unremarkable IPL season – where he scored 374 runs at 147.24 and took RR to the final. Suryakumar is returning after recovering from a forearm injury that saw him miss the last phase of the IPL and the South Africa series.
Other than these, there isn’t any further change in the squad with both the uncapped pacers, Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik, being retained.
India’s T20I squad: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik
Netizens were appreciative of the selectors putting their faith in Hardik Pandya, the IPL 2022-winning skipper.
Fans on Twitter celebrated Pandya’s elevation to captaincy. Here are there reactions:
From being termed as liability for the Indian team after T20 world cup and people talking up Venky Iyer as able replacement for him to leading GT to IPL title and now getting to lead Indian Team,life has turned around for Hardik Pandya.
Can’t be anything but happy for him. https://t.co/AdMurdZU8I
— Akash Kumar Jha (@Akashkumarjha14) June 15, 2022
So happy to see both Sanju Samson and Rahul Tripathi in India’s T20I squad for the Ireland series! Hardik Pandya also deserves to lead after that kind of an IPL season. Only Prithvi Shaw missing from the squad, but he will be there soon. Getting things right one by one!
— Prasenjit Dey (@CricPrasen) June 15, 2022
Three months ago, Hardik Pandya hadn’t captained *any* team at senior level. Now, he’s an IPL winning captain who will soon be an India captain.
ps: Stoked by Rahul Tripathi’s inclusion in India’s side too. Deserves it after how he did in IPL 2022. https://t.co/ltfKqFCpcm
— Saurabh Somani (@saurabh_42) June 15, 2022
Hardik the captain
https://t.co/3ba7FcG43T
— 𝕄𝕣 𝔸
(@cricdrugs) Since Virat Kohli has stepped down from captaincy, India has had 4 captains.
Rohit Sharma
KL Rahul
Rishabh Pant
Hardik Pandya— India Fantasy (@india_fantasy) June 15, 2022
https://twitter.com/CricKaushik_/status/1537098213458513920
Bc what a team
Pandya samson kishan tripathi hooda karthik— Vicky (@Tendulkrar) June 15, 2022
Congratulations Pandya Bhai
— 𝕽𝖆𝖍𝖚𝖑
Hardik Pandya, captain of India.
Memes do come true.
— Eashan Ghosh (@eashanghosh) June 15, 2022
