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Why not Steve Smith? He is the best player in the squad right now. David Warner won't be a bad choice either. And in case they are aiming for the future, then they should go for Marnus Labuschangne. Now what I don't want is them to hand over the captaincy to someone who is not performing at the moment. That rules out players like Mitchell Starc.
The ball tampering incident is the reason i am not expecting CA to appoint Steve Smith as the captain and as JSRAW said Pat Cummins could be the next captain.
Consider his career finish if CA is serious about these allegations because Paine can't cement his spot in the squad as wicketkeeper-batsman. He was there only because he was captain.
It is a fact that he wont be in the team solely as a wicketkeeper batsman as there are many players that have the potential to replace him.
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A woman named Rehnuma Bhati has accused that Hardik along with his two friends raped her at the Trident hotel many years ago.
"She (rehnuma) wrote that she was forced to sleep with Munaf Patel in a continental hotel, and with Hardik Pandya in a hotel named Trident. According to the complaint, Pandya and his two friends committed all kinds of unnatural sexual activities with her including oral sex and anal sex, and all of them were drunk," the report stated.
Not sure what really happened. They might have slept together, but to come out with an accusation years later is a mystery.