'They'll be in serious trouble if something happens to him': Gambhir urges India to find star player's backup

2023 is an important year for Team India. After the T20 World Cup 2022 debacle, where they were hammered in the semi-finals, India will now look to end their nine-year-long-ICC-title-drought in 2023 with a chance at the mega title in the forthcoming WTC final (where India haven't confirmed a slot yet) and ODI World Cup, to be hosted by India later this year.

India, under Hardik Pandya, started 2023 with a thrilling two-run win over Sri Lanka on Tuesday (January 03) in the series opener of the three-match T20Is. Hardik has always been a valuable all-rounder for India, especially in white-ball formats, and taken over as the T20I captain in Rohit Sharma's absence. He has not been officially named as the T20I skipper but is being touted to be the next white-ball captain after Rohit. For the upcoming home SL ODIs, Hardik even replaced KL Rahul as the new vice-captain. Thus, with his stoks rising, former Indian opener-turned-commentator Gautam Gambhir has urged India to find Hardik's like-for-like replacement as they will be in 'serious trouble' if something happens to the 29-year-old.

Gambhir opined that India need to rope in a backup for Hardik in the white-ball setup. "They need to quickly identify a backup for Hardik; if something happens to him, India will be in serious, serious trouble," Gambhir toldStar Sports.

India have the likes of Shardul Thakur, Venkatesh Iyer, etc. who can fill in for Hardik as fast-bowling all-rounders but will hope for the star player to remain fit with some big ICC events lined-up.

Gambhir, the T20 WC and ODI WC medallist, also spoke at length on the workload management issue. He believes India's key players will have to prioritise playing ODIs with the World Cup to be held in India later this year. "This year [the core group should be focusing on] ODIs for sure. If they want to take a break, people who are playing all three formats, they can definitely take a break from T20 cricket but surely not from ODI format. They have got to play together - I think the biggest mistake Indian cricket has made in the last probably two World Cups has been that they [the core players], these guys have not played enough cricket [in the lead up to the World Cups] together," Gambhir mentioned.

While Rohit, Virat Kohli, etc. will be seen in action during the SL ODIs, Hardik & Co. will look to seal the three-match T20I series versus the Islanders, on Thursday evening (January 05), in Pune.