Players like Hardik Pandya and Manish Pandey must be given more time, insists Ganguly

India have had a mixed outing in the Rainbow nation so far. After suffering a 2-1 loss in the Test series last month, the visitors managed to make a solid comeback in the ODI series by crushing the hosts 5-1, and are now levelled at 1-1 in the ongoing T20I series. The team management has handed chances to Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Hardik Pandya, who have proved their worth in tricky and new conditions.

Ganguly, who was responsible for giving chances to numerous emerging stars during his captaincy days, insisted that while the current crop of players has it in to make it big on the international stage that they must be given both time and opportunities to prove themselves.

"We have Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya and others have come in to play in our Indian side. We have to give them time to become the likes of Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh. Sehwag and Harbhajan also developed over a period of time. Our young players will also do so," said Ganguly, reported PTI.

Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni put up a brave stand in the middle order last game as they had a 98-run fifth-wicket partnership. While Pandey scored 79 off 48 balls, the former skipper smacked a quick fire 52 off 28 balls to turn back the clock a few years. Ganguly, who has previously criticized Dhoni’s style of play in the T20 format, was all praise for the Ranchi-born cricketer.

"Dhoni is very good in one-day matches and in T-20. It is very hard to get past MS. You have got to respect the contributions made by Dhoni and others too will get an opportunity to shine," said Ganguly.

Ganguly also added that the Indian women’s team has also been on the rise in recent times as he singled out Punjab-born Harmanpreet Kaur for praise.

"Women are doing exceptionally well in cricket. Have you seen anyone hit bigger sixers than Harmanpreet Kaur? However, the men are better," Ganguly quipped.