Prior to the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction on December 23 in Kochi, SunRisers Hyderabad released New Zealand captain Kane Williamson from his contract. The Hyderabad-based club chose to release Williamson after being given till November 15 to submit their final list of released and retained players. In advance of the series, India captain Hardik Pandya was questioned about whether Williamson would be selected in the auction for the three T20Is and three ODIs that will begin on Friday.
To this question, Hardik said: “For him, because he is a friend, yes. Rest it is okay. IPL is IPL, right now I am playing for India. When asked if his team, the Gujarat Titans, would bid for Kane Williamson in the auction, Hardik responded, “Don’t know, too far ahead to think about it now.” A white-ball series between India and New Zealand will be played just five days after the T20 World Cup concluded. For the tour, players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul have received rest. Shikhar will serve as captain in ODIs, while Hardik Pandya will take the helm in T20Is.
India fell short of defeating England in the World Cup semifinals, and the team received harsh criticism for failing to advance further than the quarterfinals in an ICC competition. “I mean, yes, we all know there is a disappointment of the World Cup but we are professionals, we need to cope up with it. How we cope up with our successes as well, we need to cope up with our failures as well. We need to go forward and look forward and kind of rectify the mistakes we made and make sure we do not repeat that,” said Hardik.
When asked about Micheal Vaughan’s criticism, in particular, Hardik said: “When you do not do well, people will have opinions which we respect. I understand people are coming with different points of view. But being at the international level, I do not think we need to prove anything to anyone. It is a sport, you keep trying and you keep getting better. When the result is supposed to happen, it will happen. But yes, definitely things we need to work on, which we are aware of and we will rectify it.”
When asked about the roadmap for the 2024 T20 World Cup, Hardik said: “Next T20 World Cup will be almost two years, if I am not wrong. Till then, we have time, and a lot of people will get chances as a lot of cricket will be played. The roadmap starts now, but it is too far ahead right now. We have time, we will start having conversations on those grounds, right now, it is about making sure that we let the boys enjoy themselves while playing here. Let them enjoy right now, we will talk about the future later on.”
Further talking about the upcoming New Zealand series, Hardik Pandya said: “Absolutely. As you said, a lot of the main guys are not here but at the same time, the players who are here have also been playing for India for a good amount of 1-1.5 years, even they have had ample chances, and enough time in international cricket to express themselves and showcase what they have. Very excited for them, new bunch and new energy.”