India’s star all-rounder Hardik Pandya is currently in New Zealand, where the Men in Blue will play a six-match (3 ODIs, 3T20Is) white-ball series, scheduled to begin on Friday, November 18, in Wellington.
Hardik will be leading the Indian side in the T20I series, which starts November 25 in Auckland. Ahead of India’s first assignment after the recently-concluded T20I World Cup, Hardik was asked about former England skipper Michael Vaughan‘s statement on Team India following their semi-final defeat against the Jos Buttled-led side.
Notably, Vaughan had criticised India and termed them as the ‘most underperforming’ white-ball team in history. In his column for The Telegraph, Vaughan wrote: “India are the most underperforming white-ball team in history. I am just staggered by how they play T20 cricket for the talent they have. They have the players but just do not have the right process in place. They have to go for it. Why do they give the opposition bowlers the first five overs to bed in?”
When asked about Vaughan’s comments, Hardik said they don’t need to prove to anyone but also mentioned that there is definite room for improvement and they will do everything possible to rectify.
“Obviously, when you don’t do well, people will have their opinion, which we respect. I understand people have different points of view. Being at the international level, I don’t think we need to prove anything to anyone. It’s a sport, you keep trying to get better and eventually when the result is supposed to happen, it will happen. There are things we need to work on, going forward, we will rectify and work on them,” said Hardik, as quoted by HT.
India were completely outplayed by England in the semis as the three lions won the contest by 10 wickets, courtesy of Buttler and Alex Hales‘ dominating batting exhibition. Hardik said that while the team is disappointed with their semi-final finish, they have to deal with it and focus on the next edition of the tournament.
“There is a disappointment in the T20 World Cup, but we are professionals. We need to cope with it the way we cope with our success and move forward, look to get better and rectify the mistakes we made,” added Hardik.
