Srinagar: Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has slammed India’s coach Gautam Gambhir and chief of selection committee Ajit Agarkar for mistreating Hardik Pandya as they appointed Suryakumar Yadav as T20I captain.
BCCI recently named Suryakumar Yadav the new T20I captain over Hardik, who was Rohit Sharma’s deputy in the successful T20 World Cup campaign.
Latif, who is very vocal about his views and opinions, feels that fitness is just an excuse for not making Hardik the captain and said if the selectors claim that the all-rounder has fitness concerns, then they should give him an unfit certificate.
“No, here they (the claims) just hand him a certificate saying he isn’t fit and there are concerns about his fitness. There are plenty of players who weren’t super fit but still became great captains. So, I think it was just an excuse. Because if Surya wasn’t around, then Rishabh (Pant) would have been the captain since you have to look at the future,” Latif said.
In a press conference before India left for the Sri Lanka tour, Agarkar revealed the reason why Hardik was not chosen as Rohit’s successor in the shortest format.
“Hardik’s skill-sets are difficult to find and fitness is difficult to find. we have got a bit more time and we can look at a few things. Fitness was a clear challenge and we wanted someone who was likely to be available more often,” Agarkar said.
“We have taken general feedback from the dressing room also,” he added.