Currently, Marcus Stoinis is a better all-rounder than Hardik Pandya, feels Matthew Hayden

Hardik Pandya's importance in the Indian team is majorly to contribute in the middle-overs exchange with the ball and giving a wider base to explore the slog overs with the bat. While he has been successful in doing that, more often than not, his consistent fragile performance at times made him a very mercurial character. Stoinis, on the other hand, had a great Big Bash League outing and one of the stars in Melbourne Stars' final campaign. While his batting has come good almost all the time, barring a few, his bowling was a revelation this summer. In light of that, Hayden, who turned out for his country in 103 Test matches and 161 ODIs, feels Stonis has overtaken Pandya as far as bragging rights are concerned.

“Marcus Stoinis is developing into a world-class all-rounder. He is unlucky not to be playing a little bit more Test cricket. He has quality in his play, although Hardik is also a fine player, comparing the two pace-bowling all-rounders. Stoinis has adopted a wider approach to his game which is winning matches for his country. Hardik Pandya also has the same responsibility, but I think right now Stoinis is a better player," Hayden was quoted as saying to PTI.

He also praised Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and predicted that the Haryana bowler will come out on top in his expected middle-overs battle against the hard-hitting Australia batsman Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell has struggled when playing in Indian conditions when he previously toured India, and who can forget the troubles Maxwell faced against Chahal during the last tour, being one of his favourite bunnies he was dismissed four times out of five to the leg spinner.

"In the perspective of ODIs and Test matches Maxwell has achieved one excellent 100. But Chahal is developing into a world-class spinner and possesses plenty of variation. Maxwell often comes in through the middle stages where he will really need to pump up the pace and Chahal has got variation, so I will get Chahal to babysit," he commented when asked about the battle between Maxwell and Chahal and who would "baby-sit" (dominate) whom."

Hayden also feels that fast bowler Pat Cummins was likely to trouble India opener Shikhar Dhawan in the upcoming limited-overs series.

“Pat Cummins will have the hold on Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan loves pace and I think Pat holds the armoury with short ball, reverse swing and the variation with slow balls.”

The India-Australia series, comprising two T20Is and five ODIs, starts on February 24 with the first T20 to be held in Visakhapatnam.

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