Twitterati delighted as Hardik Pandya is dropped for the final Test

Hanuma Vihari was handed over the debut in place of him.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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4 Min Read

Hardik Pandya
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Hardik Pandya of India. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

Virat Kohli lost yet another toss on this tour of England as Joe Root had no hesitation in opting to bat first on a pitch which looked good for batting at The Kennington Oval. More than the toss, all eyes were on the Indian team selection which has been more of a mystery these days and the Indian captain surprised everyone by dropping the all-rounder Hardik Pandya from the team.

This will be the first time that Pandya will not be part of the playing XI on this gruelling England tour across all the formats. Until now, he had also played all the overseas Test matches for India since his debut in the longest format. The visitors, this time around, decided to go in with four bowlers only and handed over a debut to the young Hanuma Vihari who currently has the best first-class average in the world.

No change in the top-order

Meanwhile, amidst all the talk about Prithvi Shaw, the team decided to go with the same set of openers for the last Test. Kohli expressed confidence in both Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul to come good and also went on to say that the conditions have been tough for the openers of both the sides. “It has been tough for the openers in the series. And you gotta respect that. Openers have worked hard, they have looked well too. It is Just about extending the partnership,” he said at the toss.

Hardik Pandya, however, was one of the shining lights in the third Test match as he had scalped his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests and also scored a fifty. But his poor show in the next game came under the scanner. The talented cricketer only picked a solitary wicket with the ball and scored only four runs to raise questions over his all-round credentials.

Meanwhile, Twitterati was happy that Pandya was finally dropped from the team and hoped that Vihari does well on his international debut.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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