Irfan Pathan feels that the current batch of Indian all-rounders need to consistently win matches to be in line for comparison with England’s Ben Stokes, backing Hardik Pandya to bat up the order to produce a “similar result” to Stokes.

Speaking on the Star Sports show Cricket Connected, Pathan said that India’s fast-bowling all-rounders haven’t matched the impact of Stokes, who recently became the top-ranked all-rounder in the ICC Test rankings after his match-winning 176 in the second Test between England and West Indies.

“We have potential in the country,” Pathan said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “It’s not like we don’t have any potential. We have Hardik Pandya, we tried Vijay Shankar for some time. We have guys who bowl spin and are all-rounders like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, but the kind of match-winning impact you want to have from a fast-bowling all-rounder, you need to make sure that these guys, the names I took, should come up, go out there and win matches for your country to be in the same league as Ben Stokes.”

Since his international debut in 2016, Pandya has been a bankable option in India’s limited-overs squads, also featuring in the Test setup for the last three years. The spotlight on the all-rounder further intensified when Kapil Dev claimed Pandya is “much better” than him in 2017, but Pandya’s constant run-ins with injuries have severely hampered his ascent, especially in the last year and a half.

"Who knows what comes next from Ben Stokes. Right now, the version we have is the most intense, most concentrated form we’ve seen."

✍ @benjonescrickethttps://t.co/XJxthmoSII

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 23, 2020

Pathan feels that Pandya needs a batting spot further up the order to get the same exposure as Stokes, similar to his role at Mumbai Indians in the IPL, where he has been played in 48 out of his 61 innings at positions four to seven.

“If you look at Hardik Pandya’s career, even in the small number of matches, he needs to go one or two steps ahead of what he’s doing at the moment,” Pathan said.” It’s all about winning matches. No doubt, he’s got all the potential, which he has, and in terms of support that he is getting as well [from the team].

“But, looking to bat higher up the order, then the team combination comes into play. He’s doing that –  when it comes to batting up the order for Mumbai Indians and he’s delivering that. If it happens for Indian cricket, with the kind of combination that they are looking at, he might be able to produce a similar result which Ben Stokes [does]. But he has to do that, not just ‘we’re talking about it’. The potential needs to convert into performances.”