DK, Pandya will be key to India’s T20 World Cup chances: Kaif

Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif is of the opinion that finishers Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya will be key to India’s T20 World Cup chances, owing to the Men in Blue being short on that particular front. 

Pandya and Karthik batted at No.5 and No.6 respectively against South Africa, and the pairing did an exceptional job against the Proteas, twice propelling the team to a match-winning score. The pair ended the series with averages of 58.50 and 46.00 respectively, both the batters striking at over 150.

With India loaded with top-order options, Kaif believes DK and Pandya’s form will be crucial as the team aims to win its first T20 World Cup title in 15 years.

"I have been saying that if you see the top-order, you have lots of players there like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, (Shreyas) Iyer. But to finish the game, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik will be playing a major role as India need finishers who can play with higher strike rate,” said Kaif in a virtual interaction organised by Sony Sports.

"So, I see these two repeating the same things again and again. Like they did against South Africa and in the IPL as well, their form will be crucial against Ireland and when they play T20Is against England and then moving forward from there. If India has to win the World Cup, they will be playing a crucial role.”

Further talking about Pandya, Kaif said that he was ‘very impressed’ with the way the all-rounder went about captaining the Gujarat Titans. 

"I was there at the ground for the finals in Ahmedabad. I saw him captaining there live. His field placement was outstanding. He is also a good man manager because the way his players performed under pressure told me the story of nice vibes around the team.

"He's backing his players; he was standing at mid-off and was talking to his players, especially to the bowlers when they felt the pressure in terms of bowling in death overs. If you ask me personally, I was very impressed with his captaincy. There are a lot of teams playing the IPL from the very first year (and) have not done what Hardik did: winning the IPL title as a captain in the very first year,” Kaif said.

The unavailability of the trio of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant saw Pandya being named captain for India’s forthcoming T20I series against Ireland. Pandya has had only one season of captaincy under his belt, at the top level, but Kaif believes there is no reason why the 28-year-old cannot replicate his IPL captaincy exploits donning the national colours. Pandya, according to Kaif, ticked most boxes in captaincy during IPL 2022.

"When he captained, what I saw as a player was in Hardik Pandya, he's ticked most boxes in captaincy. Because winning the toss, seeing the conditions, he was spot-on (with his decision making). Sometimes he batted first, he chased target, given the roles to batters as well as bowlers. Also, his form was very crucial, he was batting at three, four; coming into power-play and batted till the end apart from bowling a few overs.

"Hardik did a good job with captaincy and if you see with Gujarat Titans, you could say they were not the strongest side after the auction. Few other franchises had done a good job. But it's about how you play and perform on the field on that day. You want to pick the best eleven to win the series (against Ireland). Hardik can do that; he has done well for Gujarat."