Former Indian cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri has made a bold prediction about the future of Hardik Pandya in international cricket. According to Shastri, Pandya may decide to retire from one-day international cricket before turning 30 years old.
Hardik Pandya is currently 28 years old and plays ODIs and T20Is for the Indian cricket team. He played an integral role in the Indian cricket team’s ODI and T20I series win against the England cricket team in the 2022 English summer. Hardik also had a memorable IPL season with the Gujarat Titans before that.
It looks like Hardik has regained full fitness, but in Ravi Shastri’s view, he may think about retiring from ODIs like Ben Stokes after playing the 50-over World Cup next year.
“Take a Hardik Pandya. He wants to play T20 cricket and he is very clear in his mind that ‘I do not want to play anything else,” Ravi Shastri said in a discussion on Sky Sports.
Ravi Shastri reveals the one reason why Hardik Pandya may not retire from ODIs with immediate effect
During the same chat, Shastri pointed out that India is set to host a 50-over Cricket World Cup next year, which is why Hardik Pandya will continue playing ODIs for now. In his view, Hardik may quit ODIs after that because the next ICC 50-over event will be in 2025.
“He will play the 50-over cricket because there is a World Cup in India next year. After that, you might see him going from there as well,” Shastri added.
The former Indian cricket team head coach further mentioned that the ICC should try its level best to make the World Cups more and more important. He felt Test cricket will always remain important, but T20Is and ODIs need the support of World Cups.
