Kapil Dev, Hardik Pandya cannot be compared: Azhar

Kolkata, Jan 30 (CRICKETNMORE) - Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin on Tuesday said "there cannot be another Kapil Dev," rubbishing the comparison of India's first World Cup winning captain with all-rounder Hardik Pandya. "It's not advisable to do that," Azhar

Since making his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut against Australia at Adelaide in January 2016, Pandya has gone on to feature regularly in every format, also drawing a lot of praise from his captain Virat Kohli.

In the just-concluded South Africa Test series, the wiry Gujarat player failed to live up to expectations since scoring a fighting 93 in the first rubber at Cape Town, a Test India lost.

Pandya has also made some silly mistakes, like the inexplicable run out in the second innings of the second Test when India were reeling at 65/5 chasing a target of 287.

Kapil, on the other hand, has been regarded as one of India's finest cricketers of all time, taking 434 wickets and amassing 5,248 runs in 131 Tests. In 225 ODIs, the 59-year-old has 253 scalps and 3,783 runs.

Azhar hailed India's 63-run win in the third Test, ending the three-Test series 2-1, though not agreeing with Kohli's decision to drop Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ajinkya Rahane for the second test.