The Indian cricket team have named Hardik Pandya as the captain for the upcoming tour of Ireland.
The team will play 2 T20Is.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be Hardik’s deputy for the two games.
Suryakumar Yadav is back from injury and makes a return to the squad.
Sanju Samson has been rewarded for his IPL performances with a spot.
Another notable selection is Rahul Tripathi, who scored 413 runs for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2022 at a strike rate of 158.23.
Fast bowlers Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh, who are part of the current T20 squad against South Africa are part of the squad.
Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer aren’t part of the squad as they will be with the Test team in England.
India will play the 5th Test of the last India England series on July 1.
This has been a great year for Hardik Pandya.
After leading Gujarat Titans to the title, many cricketers hailed his leadership qualities and tipped him to become India’s captain.
Cricket legend Gavaskar had said, “The way he has led the team, the way he has got them together, the way he has got them to gel together means he has got leadership qualities.”
“When you have leadership qualities, it automatically opens the door for honours at the national level to be able to captain the Indian national team in the near future”.
Even former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer feels that the selectors made the right choice in picking him as the captain.
Jaffer said that the all-rounder would be his first preference to lead India in Rohit Sharma’s absence.
Congratulations Hardik on this well-deserved honour.