After India suffered an embarrassing 10-wicket defeat against England in the semifinals of the recently concluded ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, former English skipper Michael Vaughan criticised the Men in Blue’s performance and called them the “most underperforming white-ball team in history.” He slammed Indian top-order’s timid approach in the powerplay overs.
And days after that remark, India’s stand-in captain for the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand, Hardik Pandya, gave a befitting reply to the England captain-turned-pundit and said that we don’t need to prove anything to anyone.
Hardik, who will lead the T20I side in a three-match series that starts on Friday (November 18) against the Kiwis, was asked about Vaughan’s remarks, to which he responded that they don’t need to prove anything to anyone but that there is definite room for improvement.
“Obviously when you don’t do well, people will have their opinion, which we respect. I understand people have different points of view. Being at the international level, I don’t think we need to prove anything to anyone. It’s a sport, you keep trying to get better and eventually when the result is supposed to happen it will happen. There are things we need to work on, going forward we will rectify and work on it,” Hardik said on Wednesday.
“There is a disappointment of the T20 World Cup, but we are professionals. We need to cope with it the way we cope with our success and move forward, look to get better and rectify the mistakes we made,” he added.
For the upcoming T20I series against the Black Caps, India have rested the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul and instead selected Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, and Sanju Samson in the squad. Many see it as a transition period for India in the shortest format, and according to Hardik, all these youngsters have enough experience playing at the highest level that it will be exciting to watch them in the upcoming assignment.
“Main boys are not here but the talent we have… The players who are already here, have been playing for India for one and a half two years now so they have had enough time in international cricket to express themselves. very excited for them, new guys, new bunch, new energy, so it’s gonna be quite exciting,” Hardik said.
“The next T20 World Cup will be in two years if I’m not wrong so we have time. Till then, a lot of cricket will be played, a lot of people will have enough chances. The roadmap starts now but it’s quick (to make any comments). We’ll sit down and start having those conversations. Right now, it’s about letting the boys enjoy it, it’s a beautiful country to play cricket, we’ll talk about the future later,” Hardik added.
