"He'll have a big choice when it comes to selection because his ideas will be different" - Ravi Shastri on Hardik Pandya as India's T20I Captain

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri spoke extensively about Hardik Pandya as Team India's permanent T20I captain as the team looks to start afresh after a disappointing T20 World Cup campaign in 2022.

Since their defeat at the hands of eventual winners England in the semi-finals of the World Cup, Hardik has led India in all eight T20I matches, winning five and losing two. This includes victories against New Zealand at home and away and against Sri Lanka at home.

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Ravi Shastri voiced his opinion on if India should announce Hardik as the permanent captain.

"He is already captain of India in T20s, so he will continue, unless he is not fit. Now I feel they'll go the 2007 route where they'll identify talent and he'll have a big choice when it comes to selection because his ideas will be different, he will have played the IPL as a captain of a franchise and seen a lot of the other players."

The former head coach also spoke about Hardik's willingness to take accountability as captain.

"He is supremely confident about his own ability. The fact that he is fully fit now makes a massive difference. He's the guy who's going to take the guys on to the park, so whatever he says has to be given importance and listened to."

Hardik Pandya led the Gujarat Titans (GT) to the IPL title in their debut season last year, and the team looks on course to repeat as Champions this season, with 16 points from 11 games.

The next T20 World Cup will be played in the West Indies and the United States in June 2024.

"It's not that he is playing three formats" - Ravi Shastri on managing Hardik Pandya's workload

Ravi Shastri also disagreed on managing Hardik Pandya's workload as a concern by pointing out that the 29-year-old doesn't play all formats. Hardik last played test cricket for India almost five years back in their tour of England in 2018.

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Shastri felt there are enough phases through the year for Hardik to rest and maintain his fitness.

"Not really, because October is the World Cup, they don't play any cricket after the IPL, probably 4 or 5 matches he'll play before the World Cup, it's not that he is playing three formats. Everything now is separate, you have test matches, the moment a test series comes, he gets a corridor of a month to rest."

He also spoke on Team India heading towards a new direction in T20 cricket with the 2024 World Cup in mind.

"I think they will, T20 coming up, lot of talent amongst the youth at the moment, you might have a new team, there will be new faces not a new team because what we've seen here in this year's IPL there's some refreshing young talent."

Ravi Shastri's tenure as India's head coach ended with the team failing to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in 2021.

Shastri was in charge of the Indian team in 2014 as director, for eight months until the 2015 World Cup. He was then replaced by Anil Kumble, but returned as the head coach of the team in July 2017.

Under Shastri, India had their most dominant phase in test cricket, including twin test series victories in Australia in 2018/19 and 2020/21. They also qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) finals in 2021 and the semi-finals of the 50-over World Cup in 2019.