New Delhi: Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya is often compared with Kapil Dev, although the youngster has played only three Test matches.
Ever since former skipper Kapil Dev retired in 1994, the spot of the genuine all-rounder was vacant in the otherwise star-studded Indian team.
India has produced a plethora of spin-bowling all-rounders but the one who can produce medium pace is a rare find.
The 23-year-old Pandya is already a regular member of India's limited-overs side and eased into the longest format of the game during India's recent 3-0 whitewash of hosts Sri Lanka.
And only after his first Test series, though, Pandya is being compared to some of cricket's best all-rounders.
While India's chief selector MSK Prasad believes Pandya has the talent to match even Dev's considerable exploits, captain Virat Kohli preferred a comparison with the best fast-bowling all-rounder in the modern game.
"When you play away from home, an (all-rounder) gives you a lot of balance, and I think Hardik can be that guy going ahead, specially playing so much cricket away from home," Kohli said in Sri Lanka.
"If he grows in confidence - you see someone like Ben Stokes, what he does for England. Brings in great balance as an all-rounder. I see no reason why Hardik Pandya can't become that for India."
Batting at number eight in his first test innings in Galle, Pandya scored 50 off 49 deliveries with five fours and three sixes.
One wicket from his medium pace bowling followed in Sri Lanka's first innings, which he backed up with a particularly hostile spell of short deliveries in the second.
In his final innings of the series at Kandy, he struck his maiden Test hundred, going from one to 108 in a single session.
The brutality of that 96-ball knock drew a comparison from India batting great Sunil Gavaskar with an Australian player whose suitability for test cricket was also questioned early in his career.
"It's still early days but Pandya has proven that he has it in himself to succeed in test cricket," Gavaskar had told NDTV.
"He is a bit like David Warner. I believe that Hardik will follow Warner's footsteps and become a successful player in all three formats of the game."
