Cricketer turned broadcaster, Irfan Pathan, feels that Indian cricket "should not" give as much priority to Hardik Pandya as it has given him so far as the batting allrounder is yet to showcase his mettle at the international level.
"What I feel about Hardik Pandya is that Indian cricket needs to make it clear that they should not give him that much priority as they have given him so far because we still haven't won the World Cup," Irfan said on Star Sports.
"And if you think you are a primary all-rounder, you need to make that kind of an impact at the international level. As far as the all-rounder is concerned he hasn't made that impact at the international level, we are only thinking about the potential. We are getting confused between the IPL performances and the international performances. That's a big difference."
Irfan mentioned that Indian cricket should not get confused between Hardik's IPL and international performances. The former India player added that Hardik "can't pick and choose" between international cricket and the IPL and urged everyone to stop giving preferences to individuals so that India could win major tournaments akin to Australia.
"First of all he needs to play throughout the full year. He cannot pick and choose. Indian cricket needs to stop doing that. Stop giving preferences to individuals, if you do that, you will not be winning major tournaments. What Australia has been doing for many years is that they are actually preferring the team game. Making everyone a superstar. Not one superstar, everybody is a superstar in the squad. If you don't do that, you will not win big tournaments," Irfan concluded.
Notably, Hardik has been the pale shadow of himself in the ongoing season of the cash-rich league tournament. The star allrounder has bagged just four wickets in eight games this season for Mumbai Indians and struggled to make the right calls for the franchise as captain on numerous occasions.
