Mumbai: Indian all-rounder and stand-in captain for the first ODI against Australia Hardik Pandya on Thursday said that bilateral series are as competitive as ICC (International Cricket Council) tournaments and it is a waste of time to dwell on the failures of previous global tournaments. Has generally done well in bilateral series in home and away conditions but has been a regular failure in ICC tournaments for nearly a decade. The most recent disappointment was the semi-final loss to England in the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Pandya said that the team has not tried anything new to change the trend and their focus is on learning from bilateral matches. “I don’t think we have tried anything new,” the all-rounder told the media at the Wankhede Stadium here. We will try to show some spirit. I think we have done very well in the last few series.
He said, “All these bilateral matches are equally challenging. That’s the only way we will learn and start dealing with the pressure of knockouts (in ICC tournaments). So that thing is gone, now we hope to do well in the coming time. Pandya is also the vice-captain of the Indian team for this series against Australia. He said that the players of the team are comfortable with the decisions related to workload management.
He said, “We have to trust our ‘strength and conditioning’ coach. I am a person who trusts his team. The decision of when a player has to play and when not is entirely up to them. They are very professional in this matter. “The 29-year-old player said,” All our players are confident that if they are ruled out of a few matches then there is no problem. There is an atmosphere of confidence in the team that if someone misses a match due to the workload management, then the team management takes care of him on his return. I think that is the reason why the players who have gone out have come back with a lot of sense of security.