Mumbai: Hardik Pandya, ever since his debut has been an incredible asset for the Indian team and with his all-round abilities, the 24-year-old has often lifted the team out of trouble, much like he did in Cape Town on January 6. Although he is touted as the next Kapil Dev, former Indian pacer Karsan Ghavri said that the Baroda all-rounder is, “nowhere near Kapil.”
“He (Kapil) is being so modest to say, a few days ago I read in the newspaper that Hardik Pandya is a better all-rounder than me. In my view Hardik Pandya is nowhere near Kapil Dev,” said Ghavri, while speaking at the Legends Club function at the Cricket Club of India (CCI), during Kapil’s 59th birthday celebration.
“And even if he has to reach there, he has got a long-long way to go. It’s a very difficult comparison, but (Hardik) he is nowhere near Kapil Dev right now.”
“Time will tell on how far he (Hardik) can reach close to Kapil’s achievement or whatever Kapil has done and the time will tell you everything,” added Ghavri, who had opened the bowling alongside Kapil in many Test matches.
On a pitch where the Indian batsmen failed to make an impact in both the innings, the Indian bowling unit tasted success, as they got the better of the Proteas in both the innings, dismissing them for 286 and 130 respectively.
Praising India’s bowling effort in the first Test match, Ghavri analysed the reason for India’s loss and said, “We bowled extremely well in both the innings. Bowlers have done a beautiful job in the first Test match and it is only the batsman, who have let us down. It is not that we batted very badly, but we batted very poorly and so that was the result.”
He also advised the batsmen take more responsibility in the second and third Test match.
“And if we really need to improve from the second and the third Test onwards, every batsman has to take a lot of responsibility and plan out their innings and you need to have lot of runs on the board to fight, you got give something to your bowlers and if you don’t do that, then the result will be different all-together,” he said.