Hardik Pandya has been under fire after India lost the T20I series against the West Indies, and while there were mistakes made, it’s still early days, writes Sarah Waris.

India’s ‘unofficial’ T20I skipper is not your typical India cricketer. He colours his hair blue to match the national jersey colours, says things he really shouldn’t say and loves his English songs, which, by default, makes him hooty and snobbish. That’s just how it works. Cricketers need to be mild, humble and soft-spoken. Upcoming players, even more so. Just ask Riyan Parag or Jemimah Rodrigues about the perils of not following the laid-out norms.

Hardik chose to be uninhibited from the early days, the risk of which was excess scrutiny, extending onto his personal life. There were a few unmentionable comments that he should have remained tight-lipped about, and despite the regrets, the tide did not turn towards him. It showed during the minor blip against the West Indies when he failed to lead a bunch of newcomers to a series win. A tour that went under the radar would have ended in a whimper had India clinched the T20I series, but a loss against a side that has failed to qualify for the last two World Cups in both white-ball formats was unacceptable. And so, calls to sack Hardik started trending, just 16 games after he became the de-facto T20I skipper.

After the disaster of the T20 World Cup last year, the signs were clear that India were looking in a new direction. Without experienced stars, Hardik has been in charge of handling the surplus IPL talent and bringing in a more aggressive approach with the bat. This is all unofficial, of course, as Rohit Sharma continues to be India’s all-format skipper on paper.

Hardik’s job is not easy, and the unwanted criticism will not help. After the 2022 event, India went for a total revamp, with only four players featuring in both the semifinal against England last year and the fifth West Indies T20I this year. Not only does Hardik have to make a squad from scratch for the 2024 T20 World Cup, but he also has limited time. With the ODI World Cup less than 50 days away, Hardik will not be touring Ireland nor playing the Asian Games, where a number of exciting IPL stars will be in action. He will not be around to gauge the strengths and the best combinations of the team first-hand, and will only get a handful of matches to figure that out.

After the 50-over World Cup, India will just have eight T20Is to work with as they bid to find their perfect team. They will play five T20Is against Australia and three against Afghanistan during their home season. By the time they play the T20 World Cup in June, they would have gone five months without any T20I action, although the players will be involved in the Indian Premier League.

The squad for the Windies T20Is was not a finished product, but had the core players that are expected to play in the T20 event next year. By trying out different combinations and testing players in various situations, Hardik would have got a sense of what works and what doesn’t, and the areas that need improvement. Both the captain and coach, Rahul Dravid, were vocal in wanting more batting depth in a squad which is being built from ground zero, with Hardik also taking responsibility for his failures to finish off the innings regularly. Acknowledging the problem areas and working on them with the more significant aim in mind is what the bilaterals are for, and if this loss helps them find specific answers to the existing gaps, the defeats really don’t matter.

Hardik’s short stint as captain has seen more successes than failures. Besides winning 10 of the 16 T20Is he has led in, he also took his IPL team, Gujarat Titans, to the final in successive years. Gujarat won the title last year and came close this time around, dominating the league stages on both occasions.

Leading a team of out-of-form misfits to glory, with a squad that lacked options and depth has been attributed to Hardik’s clear-cut thought process. He has carefully assigned specific roles to his players, and is not afraid of playing according to the situation. Being flexible, a result of acutely understanding each teammate’s powers, has played a part in Gujarat’s twin final appearances. Hardik left Mumbai Indians, the team that gave him his fame, with no captaincy experience but with a desire to captain a side. That he has excelled as captain in a league like the IPL with a team that was far from threatening is indicative of his leadership skills. A mere 16 T20Is are not enough to counterbalance that.

He has made his mistakes, like not bowling Yuzvendra Chahal after the 16th over of the second T20I against the Windies, but no captain has been immune to errors. He is still new to the role but has shown he has a smart cricketing brain, and pouncing on him so soon is a knee-jerk reaction. Admittedly, IPL successes does not guarantee India glory but, just maybe, it will.

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