‘I told him over the phone’: Ashish Nehra reveals how Gujarat Titans appointed Hardik Pandya as captain

Gujarat Titans head coach Ashish Nehra revealed he informed Hardik Pandya about the captaincy over the phone ahead of their inaugural season last year.
“On the phone, I told him that he is going to be the captain, and he was ready for the captaincy,” Nehra said on the Gujarat Titans podcast.
“He was pumped and if you have that kind of desire, then the sky is the limit for someone like Hardik,” he added.

skip bo rules

Host Gaurav Kapur asked Ashish Nehra what prompted them to pick Hardik Pandya as the captain and what were the reasons behind their decisions.

“He has don the captaincy but we knew that he will always be in the playing XI. He was ready to have a conversation with Gary Kirsten and Vikram Solanki. He had no ego. He knew that we all are here to help him.
“As a person, Hardik Pandya was the same be the first week or the last week, but he evolved. I learnt so many things, Hardik Pandya is fifteen years younger than me and he also evolved.”
Nehra said that the only concern with Hardik was his “fitness issues”, and it was a challenge for him as well but he never panicked.
“Everything starts from somewhere. When you are talking about Hardik Pandya, we must not discuss what kind of player he is. It was just a fitness issue, and it can happen to any cricketer.
“Sportsperson’s life is not going to be similar all the time. I played a few series with Hardik, my last stint with Team India. He was starting then. We had that kind of relationship. He never losses his temper.
“I just helped him. Hardik has done the captaincy for only one year now. He is leading India in the T20Is as well. Even if he is doing captaincy for tow, three or five years still there’s so much to learn. My job as a coach is to explain things to him ‘keep things simple, here are few things that you can do better’,” he said.
Gujarat Titans performance analyst Sandeep Raju also admitted that there few eyebrows when Hardik Pandya was appointed as captain.

“There were few raised eyebrows when we appointed Hardik as captain. We all saw the calibre in Hardik and from the beginning, we were on the same page.
“We knew that if he is going to be fit, he would do a great job. He has never captained before, that raised eyebrows. It was a challenge for him as well,” he said.