Not long ago, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli heaped praises on all-rounder Hardik Pandya and said that he can go on to become a match-winning all-rounder like England’s Ben Stokes. Kohli also said that he has a lot of faith in Pandya.
“I have a lot of faith in him (Hardik) as far as any format is concerned. If he grows in confidence you see someone like Ben Stokes, what he does for England, brings in great balance as an all-rounder. I see no reason why Hardik Pandya can’t become that for India,” Kohli said at the post- match press conference after the first Test.
But, Virat’s Delhi teammate Gautam Gambhir has a different point of view on Pandya. Gambhir, while speaking to DNA said that Pandy’s batting is one-dimseniosnal and he needs to work very hard on his technique if he wants to do well in Test cricket.
“Look, he’s got to improve a lot, especially when it comes to his batting. You can’t just play one way. At the moment, he can do that because you have your top three and four scoring runs for you. So, you have the platform to go out there and play the way you want to. But ultimately, you have to tighten your technique because the moment you lose two-three wickets early, with him batting at No. 6 or 7, he has to have a little bit of solidity.
“At the moment, according to me, he’s not there yet. He needs to work a lot on his technical side. Maybe he can be an attacking option, but at the same time you need to have a solid technique for that as well. Right now, you can’t compare his two or three innings because he has got the platform to play the way he wants to play,” Gambhir told DNA.
