While disapproving rumors of being the next head coach of Indian men’s cricket team, former Indian offspinner Harbhajan Singh sympathizes with Hardik Pandya in his tough phase of life.
Despite struggling in the IPL, both as captain and player for Mumbai Indians, Harbhajan believes that he will be a different performer when he plays for India in the forthcoming T20 World Cup.
He hopes that Pandya who “hasn’t been a free man in the last two months,” will find his form during the tournament since if he does well it would go some way to ensuring that India achieve success at the competition.
“When he wears that blue jersey, he will be a different Hardik Pandya because we know he 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.
“If he has a good tournament obviously India will have great chance to go forward. Yes, his form is a bit of concern…and lot of other stuff was going on around him, his shifting from Gujarat to Mumbai was big change and the team (MI) didn’t react too well to Hardik coming back and that too as captain,” added 43-year-old.
He urges upon proper management by team officials so that both Rohit Sharma and Himanshu play together with others collectively as one team.
“It looked like they (MI) were not playing together as a team. So there was a lot going on. Hardik wasn’t free man in 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” says him
Talking about Indian pace attack, Bhumrah is only bowler whom Harbhajan has consistently seen performing despite any condition; Singh feels Arshdeep and Siraj need assist from pitch to be fruitful. He expects the other bowlers to back Bumrah up.
“Pace attack definitely could be a concern because because Bumrah is in a different league for the kind of bowler he is. He will win you games on any kind of pitch. He doesn’t need conditions whereas other bowlers like Arshdeep and Siraj would need help from conditions. If there’s bounce, Siraj might do well. He is tall, can also swing it both ways, hits the deck hard and has got pace. But if wickets are slow then the challenge begins for other bowlers” said Harbhajan.
During IPL, Harbhajan was impressed by Virat Kohli’s increased strike rate as well as adding new shots to his armory meaning that he expects Kohli and Rohit Sharma to go after runs in Powerplay while respecting conditions in USA and West Indies respectively.
“Virat has shown a lot of improvement from last year to this year and people spoke about his strike rate. It was in 130s during last year and this time it is in 160s,” he said
Gautam Gambhir’s name has been mentioned as a potential candidate for India’s head coach, and Harbhajan believes that the most important job of any coach is to unite the team and make sure that they play together as one.
“I cannot afford to give so much time. I have a young family at this stage of my life and I need to be with them and take care of them. When it is time, I will say yes, I am ready for it,” he concluded.
