Sunil Gavaskar questions Hardik Pandya's credentials as an all-rounder

Indian all-round cricketer Hardik Pandya hasn’t had the best of series in white-clothing cricket against England. Barring the third Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham where he scored a half-century and picked up a five-wicket haul, the 24-year-old has mostly been lacklustre in his areas of expertise. Leaving the fifty, he has scored 112 runs in seven innings at an abysmal average of 16.

With the ball, he has picked ten wickets in four matches. In India’s last match in Southampton, he scored four in the first innings and got out for a duck when the visiting team was chasing 245 runs. To add to his agony, he only managed one wicket in the contest. Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian cricketer didn’t mince any words in saying that Pandya doesn’t qualify as an all-rounder.

“You want to call Hardik Pandya an all-rounder? Whoever wants to call Pandya an all-rounder, may call! But I don’t think so,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying in the Deccan Chronicle.

India slump to series defeat

Yesterday, India had a golden opportunity to win the encounter at The Ageas Bowl and draw level in the five-match series against the Three Lions. During the run-chase, three early wickets of KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan pushed India back. Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane scored half-centuries and restored sanity back in the Indian innings with a 101-run stand.

Nevertheless, a flurry of wickets went down thereafter and the visitors lost their last seven wickets for a mere 61 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin tried hard with a gutsy knock of 25 runs lower down the order, but it was never going to be enough for taking India over the finishing line. The fifth and final Test will be played at Kennington Oval in London from September 7 and it’s nothing but a dead rubber.

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