"Please go back and read to what I said about Hardik Pandya once again" - Micheal Holding hits back at crictics

Cricket trolls were busy this week lambasting West Indies fast bowling legend Michael Holding on Twitter for having first said that Hardik Pandya "is not a Test allrounder yet" and more importantly, "nowhere close to Kapil Dev" and that Jasprit Bumrah "is not a new-ball bowler" and that he would "not pick Bumrah for the England series". Since the Jamaican spoke those words in the ongoing series, the Twitterati have been busy raising a hue and cry. The trolling soared when Pandya picked up a five-wicket haul in the first innings at Trent Bridge and Bumrah did the same in the second, with India going on to win the third Test emphatically.

Holding, however, is not backing off from what he had to say on Bumrah. And where Pandya is concerned, the former pacer says "please go back and listen to, or read what I have said about Pandya once again".

“Please go back and listen to or read what I have said about Pandya. I was more critical of the people who were telling me he is the next Kapil Dev, not of Pandya himself. I have gone on to say that he is not the man to fill that sort of role as yet, batting at No. 6 and bowling. What I am glad also to see is that I read somewhere that he had said he doesn't want to be known as the new Kapil Dev; he is Hardik Pandya, which is the right attitude," Holding said in a chat with the TOI. 

After his 5 for 27 in the first innings at Trent Bridge, Pandya did mention that he "wasn't Kapil but Hardik" and would like to remain so.

"He (Pandya) only bowled 10 overs in the entire first Test (Edgbaston) and 17 in the entire second Test where the seamers on both teams were making the ball talk and batsmen were struggling. He got no runs in either of the first two Tests as well. He bowled a lot more in the third Test and maybe that is down to the fact that he got a wicket with his first delivery, which then convinced his captain to give him more overs than in the first two Tests," Holding added while talking about the issues that he had with Pandya’s game throughout the Test. 

Holding also had an opinion about Jasprit Bumrah which had to go through a lot of criticism. 

"I would still not have him (Bumrah) as my opening bowler. Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami do a bit more with the brand new ball and they will remain my opening bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar's absence," Holding said. 

Having said that, in no way does Holding regard Bumrah as a bowler who doesn't belong at the top level, except that had he been the young bowler's skipper, he'd still not hand Bumrah the new ball.

"What I have seen is he can get the ball to straighten from wide of the crease and is more effective with the slightly older ball," he said. 

Holding doesn't agree that Bumrah has tried his hand at developing an outswinger since he made his debut in South Africa in January. "What you have to remember is that in England, with so much assistance from both pitch and atmosphere for the quick bowlers, Bumrah will get the odd ball to straighten on the right-handers' off-stump, although his action doesn't enhance his ability to do so. The same delivery in South Africa, Australia, etc would not straighten as it can tend to do in England. He has pace, though, which is a welcome asset that cannot be bought,"  Holding added.