IPL 2023: Hardik Pandya needs a bit of help – Sanjay Manjrekar feels Steve Smith can replace Kane Williamson in GT’s squad

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar has backed Steve Smith to replace injured Kane Williamson in Gujarat Titans squad. The reigning champions suffered a huge blow as New Zealand’s veteran suffered a knee injury in the opening match of the season against Chennai Super Kings.

Williamson was fielding at the boundary rope when he landed hard on his right foot while trying to take Ruturaj Gaikwad’s catch in the 13th over of the innings. The Kiwi was then ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury.

On the other hand, Steve Smith is working as a commentator in the ongoing tournament. Smith had earlier not even put his name in the IPL 2023 mini-auction.

Speaking to Star Sports, Sanjay Manjrekar said, “Steve Smith is the kind of player they want, somebody who can play all kinds of gears. Plus with the new rules which he finds very cool, I’d love to see Smith’s’ captaincy, we saw that and we were raving about it in the India-Australia series. And Hardik Pandya needs a bit of help, he confessed, ‘I have no idea what my tactics are, so I’m going to leave it to the others.’ So, that could be a great call actually.”

Meanwhile, Steve Smith denied any speculations of him replacing Kane Williamson in the GT squad. Smith has scored 2485 runs in 103 IPL matches at an average of 34.51.

Smith said, “I don’t know if I’ll qualify, I didn’t even put myself in the auctions. So I don’t think there’s even a possibility. So, maybe next year, we will see where we go. I think just coming up against the best players around the world, the learning experiences from each of those, sharing dressing rooms with guys like MS Dhoni, Jos Buttler, guys like that, It’s been incredible, and the IPL has just been unbelievable since its start 15 years ago and it just continues to grow and grow.”

On the other hand, Gujarat Titans won their opening match of the season by five wickets against CSK. Shubman Gill scored a crucial knock of 63 runs in the run chase of 179 runs whereas Rashid Khan was the star of the show as he scalped two wickets in his quota of four overs.

Gujarat Titans will next lock horns against Delhi Capitals at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Tuesday.