Why is Hardik Pandya captaining India in 2nd ODI vs West Indies?

Hardik Pandya will captain India for the second time in ODIs on Saturday as Rohit Sharma has been rested for the second match against West Indies at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

The all-rounder led India in ODIs for the first time in March against Australia when Rohit was busy with family commitments. This time, at the toss, Hardik said that Rohit and Virat Kohli have taken rest as they want to give opportunities to other players:

"It's just that, a few questions have to be answered.Virat and Rohit have been playing a lot of cricket. They thought they should rest and be fresh for the third ODI. Just resting to give opportunities to other guys."

Sanju Samson and Axar Patel have replaced the two batting heavyweights in the team. Axar can bat, but India didn't need to strengthen the bowling attack (and have seven options now) when they bowled West Indies out for just 114 in the first ODI.

India's playing 11: Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (WK), Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar

Hardik Pandya's captaincy record

The 29-year-old's captaincy career started with leading Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 title in their debut year. He backed that up with a runners-up finish in 2023.

In the aforementioned ODI captaincy debut against Australia, India won by five wickets and he scored 25 (31) with bowling figures of 1/29. Pandya has also been India's default captaincy backup in the shortest format, which is where he also made his international captaincy debut in 2022.

Overall, Hardik Pandya has led India in 11 T20Is, winning eight and losing just two. He has a batting average of 27.38 in these matches, while also picking up eight wickets.