‘Unke paas toh Hardik Pandya jaisa player hai’: Sunil Gavaskar slams Pakan for not playing Mohammad Wasim Jr against India

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar lashed out on the Pakan team management for not playing Mohammad Wasim Jr and compared him to star India all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
Against Zimbabwe, Mohammad Wasim Jr picked up 4 for 24 with the ball and almost won it with the bat.
“I feel their selection hasn’t been good. For Australia’s conditions, if they had a bowler who could seam up, like Mohammad Wasim did against Zimbabwe. And he also played a couple of good shots as well. He has that talent,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“Unke paas toh Hardik Pandya jaisa player hai (They have a player of Hardik Pandya’s calibre), he’s still new but I’m just giving the idea that he can play those lofty shots and can give you a couple of overs as well. And they did not play him against India. They played two spinners. You need a player who can give you 3-4 overs and can score 30 runs in the last few overs,” he added.
Pakan’s brittle middle-order batters were restricted at 129-8 in a thrilling game at Perth after Zimbabwe chose to bat first and struggled against pace on a bouncy wicket to make 130-8.
Gavaskar also questioned Pakan’s middle-order.

“They don’t have a very settled middle order. In the T20I matches they played before, Fakhar Zaman played at No 3 or 4. Now he is just part of the squad, but not in the XI. Shan Masood is scoring runs, but those are not impact innings,” he said.
Pakan will next play against the Netherlands in a must-win match on October 30.