1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has come in support of Hardik Pandya as he countered Ravi Shastri’s remark. Dev said that he didn’t necessarily agree with what former India coach Ravi Shastri had to say about Pandya’s body not being able to cope with Test cricket. The former Indian skipper also gave the example of Australian legend Dennis Lille and said that the human body can come back from any given condition.
Dev was in a conversation with The Week magazine, where he said that Pandya is a good athlete, and just needs to work hard on his body. The India legend said, “I respect his statement, but why? Nobody has had more breakdowns than Dennis Lillee. So I don’t believe that. Human body can come back from any corner, come back into top condition. If you say Hardik Pandya – who is such a great athlete, looks so good – has to work hard on his body, he has to work hard. His body can’t take it?”
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The Haryana Hurricane added, “It’s too much hard work today. You have T20Is, you have ODIs, you have Tests, you have other cricket also. In our time, there was only cricket. It’s not an easy job to be an all-rounder. It’s not an easy job to play all types of cricket. But some people can play.”
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Notably, Pandya is a part of India’s expedition to West Indies, where he is currently participating in the 3-match ODI series. During his early cricket days, several cricket experts were seeing him as India’s next Kapil Dev. However, Pandya’s bowling hampered a lot due to back issues, and he hasn’t been a part of India’s red-ball format squad since 2018.
