'Hardik Pandya is nowhere near Kapil Dev,' says former India pacer Karsan Ghavri

Hardik Pandya’s exploits with the bat in recent times at the international stage and his ability to roll his arm over has brought comparisons with the legendary Kapil Dev. The former India captain was
only modest in saying recently that “Hardik is better than me as an all-rounder”.

Kapil’s bowling partner in Tests in the 1970s and 1980s, left-armer Karsan Ghavri put an end to this debate as to who is a better all-rounder when he said in Mumbai on Thursday evening, “Hardik Pandya is
nowhere near Kapil Dev. And, even if he has to reach there, he has got a long, long way to go. It's a very difficult comparison, but (Hardik) he is nowhere near Kapil Dev right now.”

Ghavri, 66 and who played 28 of his 39 Tests with Kapil, sharing the new ball in a majority of them, was speaking at the Legends Club gathering at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) to celebrate Kapil Dev’s 59th birthday, though five days belated.

"Time will tell on how far he (Hardik) can reach close to Kapil's achievement or whatever Kapil has done," Ghavri, India’s first medium-pacer to 100 Test wickets, said.

Another guest speaker on the occasion, Kapil’s team-mate in the mid-1980s, Raju Kulkarni was short of rating Pandya as an all-rounder.

“If you are an all-rounder, you have to be a bowling all-rounder. Or you have to be a batsman of a very high standard and who can also bowl. With Hardik, bowling has to be his main department. All-rounders are genuine, who can take five wickets on a given day, score a hundred and field brilliantly.

"Hardik is lacking in bowling department. He doesn't look a bowler who takes five wickets on any given day. He has to work on it. He is still young but is a very confident young man and will improve,” Kulkarni, a tearaway pacer in the 1980s and who played 3 Tests, opening the bowling the Kapil in two of them, said.

Pandya has begun his Test career in a promising fashion with the bat, scoring two fifties and a century in four matches so far but has taken only 7 wickets including a career-best of 2/27 in the second innings of the Cape Town Test last week. But drawing comparisons with Kapil at an early stage in Pandya’s career will only mount pressure on the current cricketer.