When former India opener and selector Kris Srikkanth said that Hardik Pandya reminded him of Kapil Dev, Hardik Pandya cut in to say, “He [Kapil Dev] is the greatest!”
In a friendly post-match interaction on Star Sports, Srikkanth prefaced his comment by saying “I am not comparing Kapil Dev and you; just talking about the kind of impact” Pandya says “He is the greatest. Thank you sir!”
Moments ago, prodded by Srikkanth, Pandya would use a Tamil slang: “Kalakara machaan! (You rock mate!). Immediately, Srikkanth replied, “Nee daan daa Kalakara (its you who are rocking!) I’am a great fan of you!”
A few months back, on a SG podcast, Pandya had talked about the Kapil comparison, saying he hasn’t even achieved even 5% of what Kapil did.
“I have very respectfully denied that (comparisons with Kapil Dev), because I don’t think I am close to him. What he did and the era in which he did it, I have always mentioned, that if I achieve even five percent of what I have done… I have still not achieved that five percent. So for me, it’s people and pundits’ jobs to compare,” Hardik said on the SG Podcast.
A week before the T20 world cup, Kapil had spoke about Pandya’s impact and the comparison to him. ”Even in our days, we had plenty of all-rounders in the India team. In our days too, we had idols, and we used to follow them. It’s good that new benchmarks are being set by young cricketers. It’s a very good sign for a team and I believe that everyone should keep working hard to set much higher benchmarks.”