"Players are afraid to get dropped"- Danish Kaneria compares Pakistan's team-building to that of India

Former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria feels India have a lot more clarity than Pakistan when it comes to building their teams for different formats. He credited the Men in Blue for taking the tough decision to look beyond veterans like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and backing Hardik Pandya to lead the team in the shortest format.

He believes Pakistan are carrying certain players across formats and opined that they need to take tough calls if they want to become a force to be reckoned with.

In a video on his YouTube channel, here's what Danish Kaneria had to say about the way India and Pakistan are building their teams:

"India have made it clear that Hardik Pandya will look after the T20I team as they move in a new direction without Rohit and Kohli. But here we are sticking to Babar Azam across formats and not changing our teams at all. This is because the players are afraid to get dropped. Once the fear creeps in, the team starts getting on the decline. You will need to take tough calls if you want to make a competitive team."

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Danish Kaneria recalled MS Dhoni's vision as Indian captain

Danish Kaneria stressed how MS Dhoni had made his vision clear when he became the permanent Indian captain. Dhoni wanted to form a young team so that the Men in Blue would become the best fielding side in the world.

On this, Kaneria stated:

"MS Dhoni had a young team in the T20 World Cup and he won with a good fielding side. He has made it clear later that instead of seniors, he wanted players who may score just 15-20 with bat but also stop 15-20 runs in the field. This is the thinking that you need, but we don't learn. We are going backward and shielding our senior players."

Danish Kaneria also hailed youngsters like Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan for making light work of the 109-run chase against New Zealand in the second ODI. He added:

"India played fearless cricket and batters like Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan backed their natural game with just 109 to get. They finished the game in 20 overs, not like us who would have stretched the game in a bid to make just personal runs. You need to put opposition under pressure and that's exactly what India did."

Having made the final of the T20 World Cup last year, it will be interesting to see if Pakistan make any radical changes to their white-ball setup.