Indian cricket team spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was all praise for teammate Hardik Pandya after he ruled himself out of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia and asked the team management to consider other talents for the match. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Ashwin emphasised on the fact that it is rare to see a player of Pandya's stature accept that he is not ready to play Test cricket and he lauded his teammate for setting a “proper statement for the cricketing fraternity”. Pandya played his last Test match way back in August 2018.
"We have reached the WTC final, and many felt that Hardik Pandya must return to the Test side. Of course, those opinions were great since Hardik has done well in England with the limited Tests he has played there. But Hardik said that won't do justice and, 'I will come back when I feel it's the right time to play Test cricket. I haven't even played a one percent role in us qualifying for the final.'"
"This is a proper statement to the cricketing fraternity and to the entire world by Hardik Pandya. Just like how Prakash Raj says in the movie 'Anniyan', "He is trying to tell something to this world," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel while discussing the WTC Final and Pandya's comments.
Pandya will be leading the Gujarat Titans side in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 after leading them to the title in their debut season. While his white-ball form has been brilliant since returning from injury, Pandya made it clear that he is not the right choice for the WTC final at the moment.
"We usually get attached to failure or success. Once we fail, we won't accept that the reason for the failure is actually us. We tend to blame others for our failures. We believe in superstitions like a black cat came in front of me when I left and things like that. We find various reasons because, at the end of the day, we are all disappointed,” the spinner said.
"So, we try to find these excuses to get the next day going for us. Whereas Hardik Pandya has accepted that he isn't eligible to play Test cricket at the moment. He stressed that people who are eligible must be selected instead of him. That was a big statement coming from a player like him. Hats off to Hardik Pandya," Ashwin concluded in the video that has gone viral on social media.