Harbhajan Singh, the retired off-spinner from India, has shown empathy towards Hardik Pandya as he undergoes a tough time in his career. Harbhajan believes that the T20 World Cup next month will liberate him since he hasn’t had any freedom at all for the last two months.
Hardik had an awful IPL season both as a player and as captain of Mumbai Indians with his team finishing last on the points table.To make matters worse, even at MI’s home ground Wankhede Stadium, fans kept on booing him anytime he went out to play.
However, Harbhajan is anticipating that the tide will change during the T20 showpiece in Americas.
“When Hardik dons that blue jersey, we know there will be a different version of Hardik Pandya who can score those runs and take those wickets. I want Hardik to come good as he has gone through a lot and I wish him all the very best to have a very good tournament for India,” said Harbhajan in an exclusive interview with PTI.
“He (he means him) said if he has a good tournament obviously India will have a great chance to go forward,” he added.
“Yes, his form is a bit of concern…and a lot of other stuff was going on around him, his shifting from Gujarat to Mumbai, was really big change and team (MI) didn’t react too well to Hardik coming back and that too as captain,” explained 43-year-old Harbhajan.
This move by Mumbai Indian’s management sparked anger amongst its fans who thought it was disrespectful after years of service. A strong disagreement met this decision taken by making Rohit lose his leadership role and handing it over to Rohit.
Throughout the season there were persistently swirling rumors about this supposed gap between their dressing rooms in MI. Speculation suggested that this was potentially split squad where players could have conflicting loyalties.
Rohit will be the captain of India’s national team with Hardik being the vice-captain as World Cup approaches from June 1st.
Harbhajan, the multi format World Cup-winner, urged the team management to bring Hardik and Rohit on “same page”.
“…it looked like they (MI) were not playing together as a team. So there was a lot going on. Hardik wasn’t a free man in the last two months. I believe both of them and many others who have played in different teams will have to come together to do something special for the nation…,” he said.
“Winning an IPL trophy cannot be compared with winning a World Cup so I want everybody involved in it from management side to bring everyone together, have them on one page and make sure they play like one.
“I believe it is up to management bringing them together and win together if they lose they should be losing together”.
