While many former players and pundits have been in favour of Shubman Gill to take over the ODI captaincy after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina went with Hardik Pandya. The Baroda all-rounder has won an Indian Premier League title with the Gujarat Titans and was in contention to take over the T20I captaincy last year when Rohit and Kohli decided to step down from the format. However, the selectors ended up making Suyrakumar Yadav captain, citing Hardik’s fitness issues. But Raina offered a different perspective on how there is a bit of MS Dhoni to Hardik, and he drew similarities between the current fast bowling all-rounder with Kapil Dev, who won the first World Cup title for India in 1983.
“Shubman Gill any day, the way they decide but I think Hardik Pandya will do a lot of miracles in white-ball cricket as a captain. Even Shubman Gill can be that guy. Hopefully, he [Hardik] should become captain again. He has experience like Kapil Paji whether it’s batting, bowling or fielding,” said Raina on Shubankar Mishra’s YouTube channel. “And he’s a very very positive guy. The way he has performed, he is a captain for the players. I see him as a glimpse of MS Dhoni in him, the way he interact and conduct on the ground, the energy, I like the most,” he added.
Hardik in 94 ODIs has scored 1904 runs at an average of 32.82 and a strike rate of 110.89, and with the ball, he picked up 91 wickets at an economy rate of 5.60.
Despite choosing the captain of his interest Raina, he maintained that both Rohit and Kohli should play the 2027 ODI World Cup. “Ro-Ko should play the 50-over World Cup because they won Champions Trophy. They have a lot of experience and you know Rohit will play domestics; he is even practicing. All depends on the selectors what team they are forming.”
