Hardik, DK's form crucial if India want to win T20 World Cup, says Mohammad Kaif

Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik's form will be crucial if India want to win the T20 World Cup, according to former cricketer Mohammad Kaif.

In the recently concluded T20I series against South Africa, Pandya and Karthik played the finisher's role as they batted at No. 5 and No. 6 respectively. The duo did an exceptional job as they led India to a match-winning score twice in the five-match T20I series. Pandya and Karthik ended the series, which ended in a 2-2 draw, with averages of 58.50 and 46.00 respectively, both the batters striking at over 150.

Team India has ample options for their top-order in Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and KL Rahul. However, Kaif believes Pandya and DK will play a key role in India's pursuit of their first T20 World Cup title in 15 years.

"I have been saying that if you see the top-order, you have lots of players there like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, (Shreyas) Iyer. But to finish the game, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik will be playing a major role as India need finishers who can play with higher strike rate.

"So, I see these two repeating the same things again and again. Like they did against South Africa and in the IPL as well, their form will be crucial against Ireland and when they play T20Is against England and then move forward from there. If India has to win the World Cup, they will be playing a crucial role," Kaif said in a virtual interaction organised by Sony Sports.

The T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place in Oct-Nov in Australia.

Pandya has been the talk of the town after captaining Gujarat Titans (GT) to Indian Premier League (IPL) glory in their maiden season. Pandya-led GT defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) rather comfortably by seven wickets to win IPL 2022 earlier this year.

Speaking about the same, Kaif has said he was "very impressed" with the way the all-rounder went about captaining GT.

"I was there at the ground for the finals in Ahmedabad. I saw him captaining there live. His field placement was outstanding. He is also a good man manager because the way his players performed under pressure told me the story of nice vibes around the team.

"He's backing his players; he was standing at mid-off and was talking to his players, especially to the bowlers when they felt the pressure in terms of bowling in death overs. If you ask me personally, I was very impressed with his captaincy. There are a lot of teams playing the IPL from the very first year (and) have not done what Hardik did: winning the IPL title as a captain in the very first year," the former Indian cricketer added.

Hardik can replicate IPL captaincy success with India as well: Kaif

Pandya is set to lead a second-string Indian team that is traveling to Ireland for a two-match T20I series. Kaif has backed Pandya to replicate his IPL captaincy success with the Men in Blue as he believes the all-rounder "ticked most boxes in captaincy" during the IPL.

"When he captained, what I saw as a player was in Hardik Pandya, he's ticked most boxes in captaincy. Because of winning the toss, and seeing the conditions, he was spot-on (with his decision making). Sometimes he batted first, he chased target, given the roles to batters as well as bowlers. Also, his form was very crucial, he was batting at three, four; coming into power-play, and batted till the end apart from bowling a few overs.

"Hardik did a good job with captaincy and if you see with Gujarat Titans, you could say they were not the strongest side after the auction. Few other franchises had done a good job. But it's about how you play and perform on the field on that day. You want to pick the best eleven to win the series (against Ireland). Hardik can do that; he has done well for Gujarat," added Kaif.

India and Ireland are scheduled to play two T20Is on June 26 and 28 respectively in Dublin.