“If I get an opportunity, then why not?,” Hardik Pandya ready to take up full time India captaincy if opportunity comes calling in future

The Indian allrounder Hardik Pandya, who led the team in the absence of the regular captain Rohit Sharma in the 5th T20I against West Indies, has said that he wouldn’t mind taking over the captaincy of the Indian team on a permanent basis in the future if such a situation arises.

Hardik Pandya has seriously come into consideration as one of the potential leadership options for India in the future because of his heroic triumph in his very first IPL season as captain with Gujarat Titans.

It was Rishabh Pant whom the Indian selectors had kept in sight as the next leadership option, but recently there seems to be a slight change in plan, and in the West Indies T20I series, Hardik Pandya was named Rohit Sharma’s deputy despite Pant being a part of the team.

As Rohit rested for the 5th game of the series to give the fringe players an opportunity to raise the envelope for themselves in the pecking order, Hardik led the team and India secured another thumping victory over the Windies by a margin of 88 runs.

Hardik Pandya has a 100% win record as India’s T20I captain so far

It was Hardik’s third game as the T20I captain of India and he has won all three of them so far, maintaining a 100% win record as captain. There have been a few speculations recently that the 28-year-old might be appointed Rohit’s deputy on a permanent basis, as Rohit is already in his mid-30s and is not expected to play for a long time.

Hardik Pandya might end up being the permanent vice captain of India in T20Is

*Just Saying*#WIvIND pic.twitter.com/zTwpFTwhG9

— Nilesh G (@oye_nilesh) August 7, 2022

When Hardik was asked in the post-match press conference yesterday if he would like to take up the full-time captaincy of India in the future, his straight answer was “yes”, but he also insisted that the Indian team’s whole focus is on the upcoming T20 World Cup at the moment and nobody is thinking anything else.

Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina are the Indian captains to win their first 3 matches in T20I.

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 8, 2022