Hardik Pandya absent in Suryakumar Yadav's first huddle as captain, Gambhir's 'happy dressing room' theory helps: Report
Hardik Pandya reportedly wasn't part of Team India's first huddle under new T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav.
The next few months are expected to be rather interesting in Indian cricket. With a new coach in Gautam Gambhir and new T20I captain in Suryakumar Yadav, Indian cricket is making a transition in its leadership. Gambhir's appointment was on expected terms, but Suryakumar getting the captaincy ahead of Hardik Pandya came with its element of surprise. Expected to be Rohit Sharma's successor in T20Is, Hardik's unwanted tryst with injuries acted as a deterrent, where at the same time, Surya's ascension – after receiving proper feedback from the dressing room – made him the obvious choice.
The sudden expected captaincy move led to a lot of questions. What next for Hardik? Will it affect his relations with his long-time India and Mumbai Indians teammate Surya? When will Hardik return to the ODI set-up after being left out of the Sri Lanka tour? When Hardik linked up with the Indian team and gave Surya a big old brotherly hug, all seemed normal, but a recent development emerging out of Sri Lanka suggests there may a lot more to it. A scribe working for Dainik Jagran, quoting a source, informed that on Monday when Suryakumar assembled his team for his first huddle as India's official T20I captain, Hardik was nowhere to be seen.
"Today was the first practice session of the Indian team in Sri Lanka. The source present there told that when the new captain Suryakumar Yadav called the team for the first time in the Hurdle to address it, Hardik Pandya was not included in it. Now it is not known why he was not there at that time. However, he joined the practice session later," the scribe posted on X.
Gautam Gambhir comes to aid?
{{/usCountry}}"Today was the first practice session of the Indian team in Sri Lanka. The source present there told that when the new captain Suryakumar Yadav called the team for the first time in the Hurdle to address it, Hardik Pandya was not included in it. Now it is not known why he was not there at that time. However, he joined the practice session later," the scribe posted on X.
Gautam Gambhir comes to aid?
{{/usCountry}}His post added that even though Hardik joined the group of players later, head coach Gambhir ensured he had a word with the former India vice-captain. Ex, because Hardik was also stripped of his role of deputy, getting replaced by young Shubman Gill. During his first official press conference, Gambhir had stressed the importance of conducting a happy dressing room, which as per him, transforms into a winning dressing room. So even if there was any bit of animosity existing between the two MI teammates, Gambhir jumped in to save the day, the source added.
{{/usCountry}}His post added that even though Hardik joined the group of players later, head coach Gambhir ensured he had a word with the former India vice-captain. Ex, because Hardik was also stripped of his role of deputy, getting replaced by young Shubman Gill. During his first official press conference, Gambhir had stressed the importance of conducting a happy dressing room, which as per him, transforms into a winning dressing room. So even if there was any bit of animosity existing between the two MI teammates, Gambhir jumped in to save the day, the source added.
{{/usCountry}}"It is known that after Rohit Sharma left the T20 captaincy, the vice-captain Hardik was the contender, but the new coach Gautam Gambhir and the selectors handed over the command of the team to Surya. However, during this time he was seen having a long discussion with Gambhir. He also talked to him about batting stance," the post said further.
India play their first series of the Gambhir-Surya era starting July 27. It's a squad that features most members of India's T20 World Cup winning squad, barring Rohit, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, of course who have announced their retirement from the format, and Jasprit Bumrah as part of workload management. Yashasvi Jaiswal has been promoted into the main squad, while Riyan Parag and Washington Sundar have been added from the recently-concluded tour of Zimbabwe.
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