The former Indian allrounder then went on to express his thoughts on how Hardik can make a similar impact like Stokes in matches.
Former Team India cricketer Irfan Pathan has backed Hardik Pandya to become a match-winner like Ben Stokes - who has been the Three Lions' Mr Reliable during their three-match Test series against West India - for India but needs to produce consistently to be in line for comparison with the England star all-rounder.
Pathan, while Speaking on the show 'Cricket Connected', claimed that even though the Men In Blue have numerous allrounders but none of them has the ability to influence the game as Stokes does.
"We have potential in the country," Pathan was quoted as saying.
"It’s not like we don’t have any potential. We have Hardik Pandya, we tried Vijay Shankar for some time."
"We have guys who bowl spin and are all-rounders like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, but the kind of match-winning impact you want to have from a fast-bowling all-rounder, you need to make sure that these guys, the names I took, should come up, go out there and win matches for your country to be in the same league as Ben Stokes," he added.
The former Indian allrounder then went on to express his thoughts on how Hardik can make a similar impact like Stokes, however, in order to do so he needs to bat further up the order for India as he does for Mumbai Indians in IPL.
"If you look at Hardik Pandya’s career, even in the small number of matches, he needs to go one or two steps ahead of what he’s doing at the moment," Pathan claimed.
"It’s all about winning matches. No doubt, he’s got all the potential, which he has, and in terms of support that he is getting as well (from the team)."
"But, looking to bat higher up the order, then the team combination comes into play. He’s doing that – when it comes to batting up the order for Mumbai Indians and he’s delivering that. If it happens for Indian cricket, with the kind of combination that they are looking at, he might be able to produce a similar result which Ben Stokes [does]. But he has to do that, not just ‘we’re talking about it’. The potential needs to convert into performances," he added.
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 "Hardik Pandya, Ben Stokes")
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