Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif has claimed that the selector’s reasoning for Hardik Pandya being stripped off T20I captaincy is just an excuse. The all-rounder, who was India’s vice-captain in the T20 World Cup, was replaced by Surykumar Yadav for the Sri Lanka series. Latif pointed out that there were many players who weren’t fit and had gone to be great captains.

“No, here they (the claims) just hand him a certificate saying he isn’t fit and there are concerns about his fitness. There are plenty of players who weren’t super fit but still became great captains. So, I think it was just an excuse,” Latif said.

Ahead of the team’s departure to Sri Lanka, chief selector Agarkar explained how India needs a captain who can be available for most of the time. And that is not the case with Hardik Pandya. The ace-allrounder has his fair share of injury concerns and thus as a result, Surya has been selected as the captain.