He hasn't played enough first class games to perform consistently. However, he looks like a player who could make a difference and win matches on his own on his day. When he came in for T20's. His bowling didn't look upto international standards. However, he went back and worked on his bowling and in the ODI series, he was bowling with good pace and had much better control than I what I saw from him in that T20 season. Again as I said, it's still not upto mark but it's not like he is going to get into the final 11 straight away but he needs to be groomed because he is a special talent and we do not have anyone like him in the domestic cricket right now. We need someone like him to give us the balance when we travel abroad. He also played that handy knock in Delhi where he almost got us the win with his batting out of nowhere but it wasn't to be. He has shown in a very short time that he can improve his game which is what is required. The more exposure he is given at this stage, the better he will become.
I feel sorry for Rishi Dhawan as well because I have been following his career for 5 years now. 2 seasons ago, he was very consistent with ball and also could score some runs. However, at that time we had Roger Binny in selection panel who would not give him chance and we were stuck with Stuart Binny. Rishi has always taken wickets in domestic cricket but his batting has never been that great. I still remember when he was picked for first time in our Australia ODI and T20 tour last year, MS Dhoni was very hesitant to pick him because his batting was nowhere near international standard. It still hasn't improved in whatever I have seen of him in last 2 years.
Hardik is someone who can contribute equally with both bat and ball. That is one of the main reason he has been given a nod over Rishi Dhawan and Stuart Binny. Stuart Binny is a very handy batsman but he is not going to trouble any batting line-up with his bowling. Rishi Dhwan is a very handy with ball but his batting is not very special. Hardik has shown that he can do both and can adapt very quickly to the conditions. Plus he is a better fielder than both Rishi and Binny.
As I said, he is unlikely to get a chance in this series unless the conditions are pace friendly which is unlikely. The point in we have to groom him right now so he can be ready by the time we have our next overseas tours. He will be very important on those because he will provided us the much needed balance that we have always lacked in foreign conditions.
