WTC 2023 | Taking someone’s place in Test team won’t be ethical, confesses Hardik Pandya

03/17/2023

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Hardik Pandya has recently admitted that it won’t be right to replace someone in the Test team as he hasn’t performed to his potential to reach there. Pandya further added that he will earn his place in the Test squad by putting in hard yards and so won’t be available for the WTC final.

Hardik Pandya has been one of the quality all-rounders for the Indian team and he has been impressive in Test cricket as well with 532 runs and 17 wickets from 11 Test matches. However, he has been away from red-ball cricket since playing his last fixture against England in 2018. The 29-year-old suffered a recurring back injury after that and so he decided to put red-ball cricket on the back seat and focus on limited formats.

Hardik will captain the national team for the first time in ODIs against Australia in the first match and so he tackled the questions from reporters ahead of the first game. The all-rounder who was considered to be a brash cricketer in his early days displayed a clarity of thought over a question about his return to Test cricket.

"To be honest, no. I am ethically very strong in my life. I haven’t done 10% to reach there. I am not even a part of the 1%. So me coming there and taking someone's place will ethically not go well with me,” Hardik stated in a pre-match press conference ahead of the first ODI against Australia.

"If I want to play Test cricket, I will go through the grind, I will earn my position, and then come back. For that reason, to be very honest, I will not be available or play the World Test Championship Final, or any future Test matches until I feel that I have earned my spot."

The ODI series between both teams will also provide an opportunity for them to take a shot at different team combinations and prepare for the upcoming World Cup in October-November. India have a dismal record in the ICC tournament's knockout fixtures and so they would like to change their fate this time around. Sharing his views on how India will approach the series, Hardik stated that the team will play according to the situation.

"We are not trying anything new. We will play according to the situation but we will try to be brave which I think in the last couple of series we have done well. The more challenging and closer the bilateral games get, the more we can learn and start playing under pressure as well as the knockouts,” he explained.

"I don't think we need to look at it [previous ICC events] right now – past is past. We are looking forward to the future and hoping for the best."