Pandya has to improve batting: Kapil Dev
03 March, 2018
Monaco: Former India captain Kapil Dev wants Hardik Pandya to “work harder on his batting” as that is his primary skill as an all-rounder.
Pandya, after his 93 in the first Test against South Africa in Cape Town, failed to get a single half-century across formats in the remaining matches.
Comparing any talented all-rounder to Kapil is a norm in Indian cricket and the World Cup winning captain wants Pandya to play without pressure.
“He (Pandya) has shown glimpses. He has talent and ability. Comparing with anyone will put more pressure on him. I would like to see him go and express himself, enjoy himself,” Kapil said on the sidelines of the Laureus World Sports Award here.
For Kapil, any all-rounder should be strong in one of the two skill sets and for him Pandya is primarily a batting all-rounder.
“I would like to see him in the team for one reason, definitely either as a bowler or as batsman. He has to work little harder on his batting because he is a batsman all-rounder. If he can perform a little more with the bat, the bowling will come easy to him and that’s what happens to all-rounders,” said India’s greatest ever all-rounder.
Kapil said that Pandya is still very young and everyone is expecting too much from him.
“We have started expecting too much from him soon but I think he has the ability and is one of the finest athletes in the team. But he has to work harder to achieve success as an all-rounder,” the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian skipper said.
Talking about next year’s World Cup, Kapil said that India will require both current skipper Virat Kohli’s aggression and his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s calmness to lift the trophy once again.
“If you can have the combination there is nothing wrong because you need to have somebody on the field who is calm and quiet and also understand the game and somebody who is very aggressive,” Kapil said about the deadly combination.
“But if everybody is very aggressive, then it’s difficult. And again if everyone is calm, then also it is difficult. So if you can have a combination of both aggression and calmness, I think it will help the team.”
Kapil said India played terrific cricket to bounce back in the limited overs series after a disappointing outing in the first two Tests in South Africa.
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