The Indian selection committee recently announced the respective T20I and ODI squads for the upcoming white-ball series against Sri Lanka, slated to start from July 27. 

The announcement was even more important since it would give an idea about who India's next leader would be in the shortest format, following Rohit Sharma's retirement after the T20 World Cup 2024 win last month. 

While premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who was the deputy to Rohit during the mega-event was touted as the next in line, star batter Suryakumar Yadav pipped his compatriot to takeover the captaincy reins. 

It is understood Pandya's workload and injury issues worked against his favour. 

Interestingly, Pandya has not even been named as vice-captain with talented young batter Shubman Gill being bestowed with the responsibilities. 

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Mohammad Kaif feel Hardik Pandya deserved captaincy

Echoing on the recent developments, former India batter Mohammad Kaif reckoned that the decision to ignore Hardik wasn't justified. 

Kaif also hinted that new-coach Gautam Gambhir wants to do things his own way but opined that Hardik was faultless. 

Speaking to IANS, Kaif added, "Surya is also doing quite well, he is not doing a bad job as such. He has also been playing for quite a while now and doing well for the team. I expect him to lead the team well, but I thought Hardik will be the captain. Gambhir has been the coach of some great teams and he has knowledge of the game as well, so he will be thinking in a certain way. But, I don't think that Hardik Pandya has done anything wrong to be not considered as captain."

Hardik Pandya has previous experience of captaincy, leading teams in IPL as well as for India. 

The 30-year-old had led Gujarat Titans to their maiden IPL title in the franchise's debut season and took over the captaincy duties from Rohit Sharma at Mumbai Indians earlier this year. 

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