The last few days have not been good for Hardik Pandya. Team India's star all-rounder would not have thought that despite his brilliant performance in the T20 World Cup 2024, he would not be given the responsibility of captaincy. Despite being the vice-captain in the World Cup, Hardik was not given the captaincy after Rohit Sharma's retirement. The selection committee and new coach Gautam Gambhir have handed over this role to star batsman Suryakumar Yadav, which has also caused controversy. In the shadow of this controversy, Surya and Hardik faced each other for the first time, the video of which has now come out.

The Indian team, led by the new coach of Team India, Gautam Gambhir, reached Sri Lanka on Monday, July 22. The entire team gathered at Mumbai airport to leave for Sri Lanka. Some of these players were meeting each other after many days. In such a situation, everyone was shaking hands and hugging each other and then Hardik and Surya came face to face.

What did Hardik and Surya do as soon as they met?

BCCI posted a video of Team India's journey to Sri Lanka on its social media platform. In this video, it is seen that Surya was already sitting in the airport lounge with many players including Rishabh Pant and then Hardik Pandya came in front of him. Then what happened was that Surya stood up as soon as he saw Hardik and hugged him. During this, there was no sadness on Hardik's face about losing the captaincy and he was smiling. The way Hardik patted Surya's back, it was clear that Surya was congratulating him on becoming the captain.

Mumbai to Pallekele via Colombo #TeamIndia have reached Sri Lanka #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/ffDYJOV7wm

— BCCI (@BCCI) July 22, 2024

Why did Hardik not get the captaincy?

If we talk about the captaincy decision, then before leaving for Sri Lanka, coach Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar gave a clear answer on this matter. Both the stars were present in the press conference and here the questions started about the captaincy decision. On this, Agarkar said that this decision was taken due to Hardik's fitness problem. He wanted continuity for the next 2 years and the captain should be available for maximum time and Surya has good captaincy qualities. However, Agarkar also made it clear that despite this, Hardik will remain an important member for the team and there will be emphasis on using him properly.