The Indian cricket team is performing well ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year. The Men in Blue recently beat England in a T20I series earlier in July and will be playing another one against West Indies in a few days.

Hardik Pandya was one of India’s best performers against England. He also had a terrific IPL season, when he won the Player of the Match award in the final and has been a livewire for the Indian team since. However, his resurgence has become a problem for other all-rounders such as Shardul Thakur.

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However, former New Zealand star Scott Styris has voiced his opinions on Thakur, claiming he is not a complete all-rounder. However, Styris has praised his batting abilities but feels he is not on the same level with Pandya.

“That’s the one thing he has at his advantage is the fact that he bats, and we’ve seen him play many match-winning innings for India, usually in the longer versions of the game. But he does possess that ability to hit boundaries, close out innings or put the final touches, the cherry on the top if you like is one thing that he does have to his advantage,” Styris said. 

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Pandya was one of the reasons behind India’s victory in the penultimate ODI match in Manchester, when he registered his best ever figure of 4/24 while bowling and helped Rishabh Pant to make a 100+ run partnership to chase down the target set down by England. He also scored 71 runs off 55 balls in the process.

“The downside is the emergence of Hardik Pandya as a genuine all-rounder. Do you need two of those style of players? Because Shardul Thakur isn’t as good as Hardik Pandya. I don’t believe he is an all-rounder. So maybe he’s fighting for a backup spot rather than one of those players to play as a front liner,” the former all-rounder concluded.