Sunil Gavaskar has named an Indian player who can play Hardik Pandya’s role at Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Hardik left the franchise to return to Mumbai Indians. Gavaskar feels Vijay Shankar has learned the skill set from Hardik and can have an impact similar to the star all-rounder.
GT spend INR 30.30 crore in the auction to add eight players to the team. During a discussion on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar was asked about the void left by Hardik’s departure.
“Vijay Shankar has learned a lot from Hardik Pandya. How Hardik adopted to different situations and how he bowled in different conditions. He can do what Hardik did for Gujarat Titans in the last two seasons.”
“Vijay Shankar can’t have the same impact, but even if he shows about 80 or 90% impact Hardik had, he would be considered a top performer,” Gavaskar added.
Shankar scored 301 runs at a strike rate of 160.10 in 10 innings in IPL 2023. However, he was not used with the ball due to the impact player rule in IPL.
Gavaskar was reminded of the Gujarat Titans’ pace attack that resembles India’s 2015 World Cup seam attack as Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, and Umesh Yadav are in one franchise.
‘They have to bowl just four overs, which is good for them. Mohammed Shami has been sensational in white-ball cricket. He will bowl in the same fashion and will go for the wickets.
“Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma will add more variety to the bowling attack. Spencer Johnson will bring in the left-handed variety. Gujarat Titans have assembled a pretty good squad,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.