With the beginning of the year 2023, the excitement of every cricket fan is enhancing. This is because Icc world Cup 2023 is coming up. All cricket teams are in good shape. And, with India as a host country for this world-level tournament, the intensity of the crowd one can imagine.
In India, where cricket is a religion, getting tickets for matches will be quite a difficult task too.
Coming back to the point, the team always requires one person to lead them. Yes, I am talking about the captain. After the retirement of MS Dhoni, our king, Virat Kohli did fill the position successfully. However, the Indian ODI captain has a lot of responsibilities. Usually, it affects the performance of that particular cricketer too. After a few of dry spells by the captain, the captaincy was given to Rohit Sharma. And, the vice-captain is the all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
In the current series against New Zealand, in the matches where neither Virat Kohli nor Rohit Sharma was playing. We have Hardik Pandya taking care of this role. And, the performance as a captain is actually good. This is the reason the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is considering Pandya to be the captain of the team entering the ICC world cup 2023.
Pandya’s stats as a captain
BCCI likes Hardik Pandya as captain because of his impressive records as an Indian ODI captain. He led the team against 10 matches so far after the T20 World Cup 2022. Those four teams are Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Ireland, and West Indies.
Looking closely at the statistics, they won the one-out-of-one match against the West Indies. This makes the winning percentage 100.
Next was the two-match series against Ireland. And, here too the team won the series by winning both matches.
Now coming to the series against New Zealand. Though the team won the series, with 2 wins, one loss, and a tie. The overall winning percentage against them is 62.50. Even currently another series against New Zealand is going on. And, the most recent T20 match on 29 January 2023 was won by India under his captaincy. In fact, his performance did play a great role in winning the match too.
Three match series against Sri Lanka too was won by India with 2 to 1 matches.
Therefore the above record as an Indian ODI captain Hardik Pandya makes him the perfect person to lead the team in ICC World Cup 2023.
Words from officials
There is no confirmed news about Hardik Pandys taking over the ICC world cup 2023 team as Indian ODI Captain. Still, there were some words of officials during the interviews which give an idea of the same. However, we can not be sure until we have the official words.
One of the BCCI officials did say the following statement in an interview with News18 Cricket next.
“ Right now, Rohit is the man to lead India in the World Cup this year but we must plan about what’s next. Just can’t wait for things to happen and then react. Just in case Rohit decides to let go of the ODI format or captaincy post the 2023 World Cup, we need to have a plan in place.”
The other statement of his also gives an idea for the same. I.e. “ Hardik is doing well as captain. He is young and will only get better. For now, there is no better option than him to be looked at post-Rohit. He must be backed and given a long and consistent rope”
Conclusion
All in all, Rohit Sharma is still a captain. And, with no official announcement about Hardik Pandya, we can not be sure about the change in captaincy. However, what we hear in the interviews, there is a fair chance of Pandya taking over this role for ICC World Cup 2023. Still, we are waiting for the big news.
However, Indian cricket fans do not worry about this. All we want is to bring the title of world cricket champion home. The team is definitely in great form with a lot of young and skillful players rising with each match. All we have to do is wait for a few more months and the fun will begin.
