'Stop Giving Hardik Pandya This Much Priority', Irfan Pathan Makes An Appeal To BCCI Ahead Of India's T20 World Cup 2024 Squad Announcement

India all-rounder and Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya is going through a rough patch at the moment, both as a captain and leader. Pandya has not been able to make a mark as MI captain as the team has suffered 6 losses in 9 matches so far. Pandya continues to be one of the mainstays of India's white-ball playing 11 despite a number of injuries in the last 5 years. He is still rated as the best pace-bowling all-rounder in the country. But we are seeing a drift as Shivam Dube is quickly take strides into this direction. Having said that, Dube remains a work-in-progress as an effective pace-bowling all-rounder. 

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Pandya's place in the India squad for the T20 World Cup is not guaranteed as selectors want him to be fully fit so that he can bowl his full quota of overs in the mega event to be held in June in the Americas. Irfan Pathan, former India all-rounder, has been very criticial of him in the past one month. Pathan launched another attack on Pandya after MI lose another IPL game to Delhi Capitals on Sunday afternoon at Kotla. Pathan, speaking to Star Sports, pointed that Pandya has not made as much impact at the international level as needed. He has had his IPL success but creating an impact at international level is what matters the most. Pathan did not directly appeal to BCCI but said that Indian cricket must stop giving him so much priority as Pandya does not have performances to show.

"What I feel about Hardik Pandya is that Indian cricket needs to make it clear that they should not give him that much priority as they have given him so far, because we still haven't won the World Cup. And if you think you are a primary all-rounder, you need to make that kind of an impact at the international level," said Pathan. "As far as the all-rounder is concerned, he has not made that impact at the international level, we are only thinking about the potential. We are getting confused between the IPL performances and the international performances. There's a big difference," Pathan added.

BCCI's Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel will sit to discuss the names for the upcoming T20 World Cup soon and squad is likely to be announced on May 1. It will be interesting to see whether an out-of-form Pandya makes it to the squad or not. His presence will give India a much-needed balance but if he is not fully fit and remains out of form, it may have an impact on the selection.