Sunil Gavaskar reckons team India should consider making a couple of changes for the game against New Zealand, but he has insisted that the team shouldn’t panic just because they lost their opening game against Pakistan by 10 wickets.
According to Sunil Gavaskar, a couple of changes that India can think about is bringing in Ishan Kishan and Shardul Thakur and that too because Hardik Pandya is not bowling at the moment, and he had a bit of a knock on his shoulder while batting in the Pakistan game.
And, Shardul Thakur is someone who was in good form for CSK in the second leg of the IPL, and he adds a big-hitting option to India’s batting at no. 8, apart from what he brings to the table with the ball. So, these two changes can be considered.
Sunil Gavaskar doesn’t want India to give the impression that they are panicking
Sunil Gavaskar says if all of a sudden, you start making too many changes after just one defeat, it sends the opposition a clear message that you have panicked and that’s not what you want.
“If Hardik Pandya is not bowling – due to that shoulder injury, Ishan Kishan has been in brilliant form, so I will surely consider him. And perhaps, you can think of Shardul Thakur in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But otherwise, if you make too many changes, then you will show the opposition that you have panicked,” Gavaskar said while speaking on Sports Tak.
While Ishan Kishan and Shardul Thakur are the unanimous choices of most of the experts to come into the India XI for the game against New Zealand, not everyone wants Hardik Pandya to be dropped. Some of them are of the opinion that Ishan Kishan should actually come in for Suryakumar Yadav and not for Hardik Pandya.
Hardik Pandya hasn’t had too much time to spend in the middle in the two warm-up games that India played or even in the first game against Pakistan, but whatever time he has spent in the middle, he has looked a bit scratchy.
Hardik, however, is a very dangerous batsman lower down the order, and it was not long back when he had batted magnificently for India in the T20I series against Australia and England. It won’t be surprising if the Indian team management backs him, even after his slightly shaky form.
