NEW DELHI: Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri set the future course for star all-arounder Hardik Pandya after he was passed over for the T20I captaincy. He advised him to play as much as possible and draw motivation from his team's recent heroics at the ICC T20 World Cup, which ended the Men in Blue's 11-year ICC trophy drought.
As Rohit Sharma's deputy during India's victorious ICC Men's T20 World Cup campaign, Pandya was among the favorites to inherit the role after Rohit departed from the competition. But when the team for the current tour of Sri Lanka was revealed, Hardik was just mentioned as a player. Shubman Gill was chosen vice-captain and Suryakumar Yadav as India's T20I skipper.