Legendary Australian pacer Glenn McGrath backed Hardik Pandya to come good, stating his experience will help him get back to his old rhythm. The all-rounder, who was named the captain of the Indian side for the T20I series in Ireland in the absence of regular top cricketers, has returned to the Indian squad after a back surgery and successful IPL. He was slightly off color in the three T20Is that has been played so far against South Africa but Mcgrath said Hardik is a “quality” all-rounder and doesn’t need to be told what he needs to do.
“Hardik has got so much experience now. He knows what he needs to do. He doesn’t need to be told by coaches what he needs to do. He is a quality all-rounder, quality hitter,” McGrath told reporters.
“Some games go well, others don’t as well. Overall, he knows what he needs to do,” he added.
Hardik has played useful cameos with the bat in the South Africa series but hasn’t been that good with the ball and it is his bowling that has been under the spotlight for quite some time now.
McGrath delighted with young CSK pacer
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) had a disappointing run in the latest edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise finished second-last in the ten-team points table and secured just four wins from 14 encounters.
Deepak Chahar, the main enforcer from the Yellow camp, missed the entire season. The India bowler, who usually generates prodigious swing with the new white-ball, sustained a hamstring injury while serving the national duties against West Indies in February. He was expected to join the team towards the latter stage of the tournament, but a back injury while recovering at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore ruled him out of the competition.
In his absence, uncapped Mukesh Choudhary was handed the new ball responsibilities and the 25-year-old pacer did a decent job out of it. The left-arm bowler scalped a total of 16 wickets in the campaign, to emerge as the joint-highest wicket-taker alongside Dwayne Bravo among the CSK bowlers.
While Choudhary didn’t have as good a season as Umran Malik or Arshdeep Singh, who were rewarded with India call-up, he did manage to catch the eyes of Glenn McGrath.
McGrath is the Director of Coaching at the famed MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, who have so far produced 19 talents who have been part of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Sharing his thoughts on the foundation’s products doing well, the former Australian pacer noted: “I’m really pleased with how they have performed especially Mukesh Chaudhry.
“Even the others such as Khaleel Ahmed and Prasidh Krishna have performed quite well on a grand stage such as the IPL. A total of 19 of our boys have played in IPL thus far and that fills me with pride.”
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