With the BCCI pulling the plug on the likes of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer as far as annual central contracts are concerned, several former cricketers including Irfan Pathan questioned the move asking why the same rule didn't apply to Hardik Pandya as well, who missed the whole domestic season due to injury and doesn't play red-ball cricket at all. Ishan and Shreyas had to pay the price of skipping red-ball domestic cricket while being away from the national team.
After Irfan, former India pacer Praveen Kumar has also blasted the Indian all-round for being given preferential treatment as he was retained in the annual retainership list despite missing domestic cricket for a long time. Speaking to Shubhankar Mishra on his YouTube channel, Kumar said, "Hardik Pandya kya chaand se utar ke aaya hai? Khelna padega isko bhi. Kyun iske liye alag niyam hain? Usko bhi board ko dhamkaana chahiye. Kyun khel lega sirf T20? Teeno format khel na. Ya tu abhi 60-70 Test matches khekl chuka hain ki abhi sirf T20s khelega. Country ko tumhari zaroorat hain (Has Hardik Pandya descended from the moon? He has to play too. Why are there different rules for him? The BCCI should threaten him. Why would you play just the domestic T20 tournament? Play all three formats. Or have you played 60-70 Test matches that you will just play T20? The country needs you)."
Kumar asked for a bit of clarity from both the entities - the board and Hardik himself. Kumar said that if Hardik is not in the red-ball scheme of things and doesn't want to be considered for the Test team, it should be communicated by him in writing while questioning BCCI for different rules for different players.
"Give it in writing that I am not available for Tests. Neither are you committing from it, nor are you withdrawing entirely. The BCCI should also be questioned. You can't twist and mould rules for one player. But I feel that there must have been a discussion. If they think Hardik is an asset in T20 and we don't want his fitness to be affected. Then it's fine. Either that or a player should be informed that he is only going to be considered for T20s and ODIs but not for Tests. That way, a player is satisfied knowing about his future," the former India pacer further added.
Pandya hasn't played much since his injury during the World Cup 2023 match against Bangladesh last year and will be raring to go given there's a T20 World Cup to follow after the IPL.
