Hardik Pandya has to bowl for him to be considered as an all-rounder: Kapil Dev

Former Indian cricketing icon Kapil Dev has questioned whether Hardik Pandya can be considered as an all-rounder since he is not bowling on a regular basis. Dev also added that Pandya has to come out of injury and once again start bowling.

The 1983 World Cup-winning captain admitted that Pandya is important with the bat for the Indian side, but has not yet proved himself as a bowler.

“He has to do both the jobs to be considered an all-rounder. He is not bowling so can we call him all-rounder? Let him bowl, he has come out from the injury. He is an extremely important batter to the country, for bowling he has to play a lot more matches, perform and bowl and then we will say,” said Kapil Dev while speaking at the Royal Calcutta Golf Course.

Rahul Dravid will do a better job as a coach than he did as a cricketer: Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev also added that India’s new Head Coach Rahul Dravid will perform better as a coach than he did as a player and labelled Dravid as a ‘good man’. Dev also opined that as time passes, people will get to know how good Dravid is as a coach.

“He’s a good man, a good cricketer. He will do a better job as a coach than as a cricketer because in cricket nobody has done better than him. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed. You can’t just judge one after his debut, you don’t go by one performance. Over a period of time, what Rahul will do, we will come to know. You only think positive,” added Dev.

Kapil Dev also revealed that Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are his favourite all-rounders of the modern era. Dev dipped his hat to Ashwin for the way he has performed, while he labelled Jadeja as a fabulous cricketer.

“I would say Ashwin, hats off to him. Jadeja… What a fabulous cricketer he is, but unfortunately, he improved as a batter and come down as a bowler to me,” concluded Kapil Dev.