The Indian cricket team came under some heavy criticism following their semifinal exit at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. The Rohit Sharma-led side was one of the favourites to win the title but lost to eventual champion England by 10 wickets in the last-four stage.
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It was the fifth straight ICC tournament from where India returned empty handed since their title tin at the Champions Trophy in 2013.
Analysing India’s performance, former England captain Michael Vaughan called them “the most underperforming white-ball team in the history of world cricket” in his column for the Daily Telegraph.
Pandya, who will be leading a young India squad during the New Zealand T20Is, has responded to the criticism saying people are entitled to their opinion but they don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
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“Obviously when you don’t do well, people will have their opinion, which we respect. I understand people have different points of view. Being at the international level, I don’t think we need to prove anything to anyone,” Pandya said.
He though added that the team will continue to work on its shortcomings.
“It’s a sport, you keep trying to get better and eventually when the result is supposed to happen it will happen. There are things we need to work on, going forward we will rectify and work on it,” Pandya said.
The allrounder said though there’s disappointment at not being able to win the trophy, the players will have to cope up with it.
“The disappointment is there but we are professionals and we need to cope up with it. We have to cope up with our failures in the same way we treat success and should move forward to get better and rectify our mistakes,” he said.
The three-match T20I series between India and New Zealand starts this Friday.
India’s Squad for New Zealand T20Is: Hardik Pandya (captain), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain and wicketkeeper), Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik
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