'Don't know who is seeing him as captain'- Salman Butt backs Rohit Sharma amid calls of Hardik Pandya's captaincy appointment

Star Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been named the stand-in skipper for the T20I series against New Zealand in the absence of Rohit Sharma. While Pandya is serving just as an interim skipper in the absence of the regular skipper, he is touted to lead the Indian team in the near future, with emphasis on the shortest format of the game. However, former Pakistani opener Salman Butt does not feel the same about Pandya's leadership qualities.

Hardik Pandya led Gujarat Titans to IPL glory in their debut season in 2022, rediscovering his form with the bat in a different role. His triumph made him a potential contender for the Indian captaincy role, and with India looking to revamp their approach in T20Is, Pandya is primed to take over from Rohit Sharma in the near future. 

But former Pakistani cricketer Salman Butt is not convinced with Pandya's leadership qualities and feels that just winning the IPL should not warrant a captaincy stint with the national team. Butt also reckoned that people in Asia are too quick to pass judgment on players and captains after a bad tournament. He highlighted the fact that Rohit has got several IPL titles under his belt, and people wouldn't have been questioning him if he had scored runs in the recently concluded T20 WC.

"I don't know who is seeing him as captain and who is watching such dreams. He has talent and has tasted success in the IPL. But even Rohit Sharma has been successful five to six times in the IPL. If he had scored well in a couple of matches (in the T20 World Cup 2022), people wouldn't have been talking about making this change at the top. In the Asian subcontinent, people start talking about such drastic and big changes rather soon," Salman Butt said in a video on his YouTube channel.

People say 'change the captain' just for the sake of an opinion: Salman Butt

Butt further validated his point by stating that only one captain won the T20 WC in Australia, does that mean the teams should sack the remaining 11 captains who participated in the competition? He feels that people are too quick to point the finger at the captains just for the sake of giving an opinion.

"Only one captain has won the World Cup, the rest of the teams have lost. Will you change the captains of all 11 teams because they lost the World Cup? Sometimes, just for the sake of giving an opinion, people say, 'change the captain'," he added.