Asia Cup 2025: ‘He will always be a leader, whether he is captain or not’: Former assistant coach on Hardik Pandya

Former assistant Indian coach Abhishek Nair praised Hardik Pandya for being selected in the Asia Cup 2025 squad and called him a successful performer under pressure. Pandya will play an important role as an all-rounder in Team India in the upcoming Asia Cup to be held in the UAE from September 9 to 28.

“Pandya’s presence at the crease gives fans hope that something incredible can happen. He is a very invaluable player for Indian cricket and when you look at world cricket, how many players do you really have who can bowl with the new ball, bowl the final overs, bowl four overs in a row, and play impactful knocks against both spin and fast bowlers? He is definitely a game-changer,” former assistant coach Nair said on Star Sports.

India all-rounder Hardik Pandya has received special praise for his contribution to the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup win. Abhishek Nair said that Team India is the current world champion also because Pandya consistently performed well with both ball and bat under pressure situations.

Pandya always plays like a leader: Abhishek Nair

He made it clear that Pandya may not be the captain, but his personality, experience and ability will be helpful for the team. According to Nair, “Pandya always plays like a leader, whether he has the captaincy or not.”

It is worth noting that Pandya proved to be the backbone of the Indian team’s bowling in the ICC T20 World Cup tournament held in West Indies and America and bowled important bowling spells. Also, on big occasions like the semi-finals and finals, he won the trust of captain Rohit Sharma and the team management with his all-round game. Well, it will be interesting to see how Hardik is going to perform in the upcoming Asia Cup?