Hardik Pandya, an all-rounder, added another feather to his cap by guiding Team India to a victory in the three-match Twenty20 International series against Sri Lanka. India won the series 2-1.
After Suryakumar Yadav hammered 112 not out off 51 balls and lead Team India to 228/5, the home team was able to seal the victory over Sri Lanka by 91 runs and take the third and final Twenty20 International match on Saturday in Rajkot.
When thereafter, India secured the game by a margin of 91 runs after the visitors were bowled out for 137.
The Hardik Pandya-led side has been getting a lot of acclaim from fans and veteran cricket players after winning their first Twenty20 International series of the year. This success has come at the beginning of the calendar year.
However, Ajay Jadeja, who captained India in the past, believes that the current Indian team could benefit from playing with more all-rounders in the limited-overs format. Jadeja made this recommendation to the Indian team.
Jadeja emphasised that the former captain of India, Mahendra Singh, was a “champion” in terms of selecting his playing XI since he had many options to choose from in terms of all-rounders. Jadeja made this point.
“You can predict with absolute certainty that if I have five bowlers and I am playing, I will either bowl X, Y, or Z. Therefore, you can strategize as an opponent, but if I have seven or eight bowlers, each of whom can bowl at a different moment, you won’t have much of an advantage.
What strategies does your adversary want to use to defeat you? You are in charge of the game, right? It was a field in which Mahendra Singh Dhoni excelled,
“There will be certain days in which Ravindra Jadeja will not have bowled a single ball. You are able to play all four of them if you say that you are going to put in Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja. What exactly is the problem with that? Because each of them is capable of batting adequately, “he added.
In addition to this, the former batter remarked, “It’s simply a random thinking on my part. You could even add another all-rounder, such as a bowling all-rounder or someone similar to Ashwin. This would be another option.
The difficulty is that you still keep the top five or six batsmen, and then you add these players as all-rounders, which results in the bowling being a little less effective.”