After India’s humiliating loss in the T20 World Cup semi-final last week, former England player Michael Vaughan criticised India in his Telegraph column. In his article, Vaughan said that India had accomplished nothing since taking home the ODI World Cup in 2011. Additionally, he described the Indian team as the worst white-ball team in history. India all-rounder Hardik Pandya responded to Vaughan’s remarks with a suitable retort. Hardik, who will captain the group during the upcoming white-ball tour of New Zealand, stated that they don’t have anything to prove and that there is still much room for improvement.
“Obviously when you don’t do well, people will have their opinion, which we respect. I understand people have different points of view. Being at the international level, I don’t think we need to prove anything to anyone. It’s a sport, you keep trying to get better and eventually when the result is supposed to happen it will happen. There are things we need to work on, going forward we will rectify and work on it,” Hardik told the media in Wellington.
The first match will take place at the Sky Stadium in Wellington on Friday, November 18, and will be the first of three T20Is and then as many ODIs for India. India and New Zealand were both forced to lose in the T20 World Cup semifinals. Pakistan defeated New Zealand, but the eventual champions, England, put an end to India’s campaign.