Gujarat Titans head coach Ashish Nehra said on Saturday that he never tried to convince Hardik Pandya not to return to Mumbai Indians but admitted that the star all-rounder will be greatly missed by the franchise. Experience in the IPL, which starts on March 22. They won the IPL title in the inaugural season before reaching the final last year and have now returned to Mumbai Indians as captain for the upcoming season.
“In any sport, you have to keep moving forward. You can’t buy experience and replacing someone like Hardik Pandya or (injured) Mohammad Shami is not easy. But it’s a learning curve and that’s what it is The way the team is going,” Nehra told the media here on Saturday.
The Pandya-Nehra combination has worked wonders for GT in the first two seasons and the inevitable question is whether the head coach is trying to stop the captain from joining Mumbai Indians.
“I never tried to convince Pandya to stay. When you play more, you gain experience. If he had gone to any other team, I could have stopped him. He (Pandya) played here for two years but he went to a team (MI) where he had previously played for 5-6 years,” Nehra admitted candidly.
Judging by the way Pandya transfers are going, Nehra feels the day is not far away when the IPL takes the path of European club football.
“The way the sport (cricket) develops, we will have trades and transfers, just like we have seen in international football. It will be a new challenge for him and maybe he will learn something new stuff and we wish him the best.”
We’ll help Jill grow into a leader
As expected, Nehra was asked what he thinks of Shubman Gill’s promotion as captain and how he will manage a team consisting of senior players.
“As a new captain, I want to see how he (Gill) operates and not just me, the whole of India wants to see because that’s the kind of player he is,” the former left-arm seamer said.
“He wants to play and do well in all three formats, so we as a team want to help him grow as a person rather than as a captain. If he grows as a person, he will grow as a captain in the future. The captain is growing more and getting better,” the coach said.
He cited the example of Pandya when he captained the team in 2022.
“Before Hardik joined GT, he had no experience of captaining any team. There are 10 teams in the IPL and you will see more and more new captains. Shreyas Iyer and even Nitish Rana have captained KKR. Let’s see which player can move on.” “
replace injured player
The 2011 World Cup winner expressed optimism about possible replacements in his squad, with Shami ruled out following Achilles surgery and Rashid Khan recovering from back surgery.
“IPL is now a 12-man tournament (with the addition of Impact Player) and it will not be easy to fill the shoes of Hardik and Shami, but we have enough people. We have Umesh Yadav, whose time in the IPL has already More than 12 years,” Nehra said.
He also hoped that Tamil Nadu captain R Sai Kishore, who took 55 wickets in the Ranji Trophy, would fulfill his promise.
“Sai Kishore didn’t play much last year but he has been performing well. So every year you see new comers and you have to believe in yourself and be ready for it,” he said.
When asked if Rashid failed to recover in time, Nehra said: “About spinners, it’s not that we don’t have experienced spinners. We have Jayant Yadav and Sai Kishore .I firmly believe in playing to your strengths. Chennai and Lucknow, there will be slow routes and we need to be ready.” The coach also revealed that rookie Jharkhand wicketkeeper Robin Mintz faced a recent encounter in Ranchi Bike accident, unlikely to play in IPL this year.
“It’s unfortunate, but we’re also excited about guys like Mintz,” the coach concluded.
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