Indian Premier League franchise Lucknow Super Giants shared an image of Hardik bowling leg-spin and a similar action image of Kumble in his delivery stride besides that to showcase the similarity in action. Fresh from his match-winning exploits to help India win the T20 World Cup last month and a break from the tour of Zimbabwe after that, Hardik will be keen to return to the field in Sri Lanka. However, he won’t be the vice-captain of the side, like he was during the T20 World Cup.
After Rohit Sharma’s retirement from T20Is, the BCCI decided to not just hand over the captaincy to Suryakumar Yadav but also changed the vice-captain from Hardik to Shubman Gill in both T20Is and ODIs. Rohit will continue to lead the team in the 50-over format.
The Sri Lanka tour will see India playing three T20Is and three ODIs.
According to the BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar, the decision to not make Hardik the T20I captain was based on his brittle fitness of late.
Besides his successful return to form in the T20 World Cup after a horrific Indian Premier League season as the captain of Mumbai Indians, Hardik went through a tough period personally because of separation with his wife, Natasa Stankovic.
But he has shown a lot of energy in training on the tour of Sri Lanka and will hope to continue from where he left in the T20 World Cup final, where his three wickets turned the tables on South Africa to script India’s come-from-behind seven-run win to lift the trophy.
The tour also marks the debut of Gautam Gambhir as India’s head coach since replacing Rahul Dravid in the role at the end of the T20 World Cup last month.
Source Agencies
