Irfan Pathan reckons Hardik Pandya can be India's Ben Stokes

Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan expressed his opinion on the current set of all-rounders in the Indian team. He spoke about how premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya has the potential to become India's Ben Stokes.

Speaking on Cricket Connected, a popular show on Star Sports, Irfan Pathan said that the Indian team has a plethora of quality all-rounders, but none of them are in the same league as Ben Stokes.

He added that fast-bowling all-rounders have a match-winning impact and Hardik Pandya, along with Vijay Shankar, should look to emulate what Ben Stokes does for his team.

"We have potential in the country. It’s not like we don’t have any potential. We have Hardik Pandya, we tried Vijay Shankar for some time. We have guys who bowl spin and are all-rounders like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

"But the kind of match-winning impact you want to have from a fast-bowling all-rounder, you need to make sure that these guys, the names I took, should come up, go out there and win matches for your country to be in the same league as Ben Stokes," Irfan Pathan said.

Irfan Pathan further stated that Hardik Pandya needs to to go one step further than what he has been doing so far. He believes that the younger Pandya brother has a lot of potential and has a lot of support from his team as well.

"If you look at Hardik Pandya’s career, even in the small number of matches, he needs to go one or two steps ahead of what he’s doing at the moment. It’s all about winning matches. No doubt, he’s got all the potential, which he has, and in terms of support that he is getting as well (from the team)," Irfan Pathan claimed.

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Irfan Pathan says Pandya might have to bat higher up the order

In the Mumbai Indians set-up, Pandya has repeatedly been promoted up the batting order, and has more often than not delivered for the team.

Irfan Pathan believes that the Baroda all-rounder can play the same role for the Indian team as Ben Stokes does for England. However, this decision must be taken without further procrastination by the team management.

"But, looking to bat higher up the order, then the team combination comes into play. He’s doing that – when it comes to batting up the order for Mumbai Indians and he’s delivering that.

If it happens for Indian cricket, with the kind of combination that they are looking at, he might be able to produce a similar result which Ben Stokes (does). But he has to do that, not just ‘we’re talking about it’. The potential needs to convert into performances," Irfan Pathan added.

Meanwhile, the IPL is all set to be hosted in the UAE, with the tournament expected to begin at the end of September. Earlier, the IPL had been postponed indefinitely due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. However, it seems that the 13th edition of the IPL might finally come to fruition.

In fact, Chairman of the IPL Governing Council, Brijesh Patel, recently revealed that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has officially sent a letter of acceptance to the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) to host the IPL.