Hardik Pandya is nowhere near the league of Imran Khan and Kapil Dev: Abdul Razzaq

Abdul Razzaq, the former Pakistan cricketer, reckons that Hardik Pandya has a long time to go before he can be placed in the league of Kapil Dev and Imran Khan. Both Kapil and Imran are World Cup-winning skippers and were two of the greatest all-rounders of their generation. As per Razzaq, Pandya has every other quality to emerge as a better cricketer if he is ready to put in the hard yards.

The Baroda player made his India debut back in 2016 and stamped his authority in ODIs and T20Is. But he hasn’t been able to keep his spot in the Test team. Moreover, frequent injuries and unwanted controversies haven’t helped his cause either. The 40-year-old Razzaq reckons that it’s easy to go out of contention if one doesn’t devote time to their passion.

Hardik Pandya has to prepare better mentally

“Pandya is a good player but he can be a much better all-rounder. It is all about hard work. When you don’t give enough time to the game, it drifts away from you,” Razzaq was quoted as saying in The Week.

In order to back his comments, Razzaq exemplified Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir. The latter had an extended run  of poor run where he failed to pick up much wickets.

“He has to prepare better mentally as well as physically. As you have seen, he has been getting injured a lot of late (underwent back surgery last year). When you earn a lot of money, you tend to relax. For every player it is the same. Mohammad Amir did not work hard enough and his performance dipped,” he stated.

For the time being, Razzaq believes that Hardik can’t be compared to Kapil and Imran. “Kapil Dev and Imran Khan are the best all-rounders of all time. Hardik is nowhere near that league. Even I was an all-rounder but it doesn’t mean that I would compare myself with Imran bhai. Kapil paaji and Imran bhai were in a different league,” Razzaq added.

Pandya recently made his comeback after being picked for the ODI series against South Africa. But he didn’t get a chance to play as the series was called off due to the coronavirus outbreak after the washed-off match in Dharamsala.