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Hardik Pandya is lucky to get viewed as an allrounder: Roger Binny
Roger Binny feels that Hardik Pandya has been able to keep his place in the Indian side only because of his ability to chip in with the ball.
Former India all-rounder Roger Binny believes that Hardik Pandya is lucky to be deemed as an all-rounder. Stating that Pandya should not be compared to former India World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev, Binny maintained that Pandya has been able to keep his place in the Indian side only because of his ability to chip in with the ball and grab a few wickets. Pandya’s form in the tour to South Africa has been anything but average. In the Test matches, he could score 119 runs at an average of 10. In the ODI’s he managed 26 runs in 4 matches at a dismal average of 8.67.
“He’s lucky to get viewed as an allrounder. He doesn’t contribute with the bat. He is chipping in with the ball, and that’s why he’s been able to keep his place in the team,” TOI quoted Binny saying.
“He has got into the Test team based on his exploits in T20 cricket. Limited-overs cricket is a different ball game altogether – you can get runs in those formats because the field is spread out,” Binny opined.
Explaining why Pandya should go back to first-class cricket, Binny said that former India World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev had scored tons of runs on the domestic circuit before making it to the first team.
“As a batsman, he’s no patch on Kapil Dev. Kapil got hundreds in first-class cricket before he broke into India’s Test side. Pandya hasn’t scored runs in first-class cricket before playing at the top level,” Binny concluded by saying.
