David Miller heaps praise on Hardik Pandya’s leadership skills

Indian star all-rounder Hardik Pandya started his captaincy career by winning a maiden Indian T20 League title by leading Gujarat Franchise earlier this year. Pandya is currently the favourite to become India’s next captain in the shortest format of the game. The 29-year-old recently led the team against New Zealand in a three-match T20I series and the team emerged victorious and eventually won the series 1-0.

Pandya has been receiving a lot of appreciation and praise for the leadership skills he has shown this year and with India eyeing the 20-20 World Cup 2024 and current captain Rohit Sharma not expected to lead the team in the shortest format, Pandya is considered an ideal replacement for him.

He has got a lot of good attributes of a leader: David Miller

South African star cricketer David Miller said that he has liked Pandya’s captaincy so far and added that he can help the Indian team change their mindset to get the much-needed result. For the unversed, India have been struggling to make it count in multinational tournaments since 2013 and the worst outing came in 2021 when they bowed out in the 20-20 World Cup in group stage. 

“I feel he is a natural leader, People follow him. He allows you to play the way that you feel like you can. He is very inclusive as a leader, he wants everyone to be close to each other. At the same time, he is clear with discipline. He has got a lot of good attributes of a leader. In Indian T20 League he got better and better as the season progressed and I see him doing that (with the Indian team as well),” Miller was quoted as saying.

“He will make the players a lot better in the mindset. 100 percent. He allows the guys to do what they want to do which is important,” Miller added. David Miller also talked about their embarrassing defeat against the Netherlands which cost them the semi-final spot in the 20-20 World Cup.

“I did (reflect on the loss). Sometimes it is difficult to process things like that. At end of the day, I still feel we were one of the stronger teams in the competition. There were many other upsets as well, it was not only us. It comes down to the last game and unfortunately for us, we needed to win and we couldn’t. That is the beauty and humility of cricket. Obviously very disappointed with that result,” the 33-year-old said further.