MUMBAI: Hardik Pandya said that bilateral series are as competitive as ICC tournaments and brooding over failures in past global competitions is an exercise in futility.

India have usually done well in bilateral series, both home and away, but have been failing regularly in ICC tournaments for close to a decade now, with the most recent disappointment being the semi-final defeat to England in the T20 World Cup in Australia last year.

Pandya said the team had not tried anything new to change the trend and the focus has been on learning from bilateral fixtures. “I don’t think we have tried anything new. We will be trying to be a little brave which I think in the last couple of series we have done quite well,” the all-rounder told the media here at the Wankhede Stadium. “All these bilaterals are as challenging, they can get as close to the wire as they can. That is the only way we are going to learn and start playing under pressure of knockouts in ICC tournaments. But, we don’t need to look at that right now, the past is past and we are hoping for the best things to come,” Pandya added.

Hardik, the designated India vice-captain for the Australia series, said that the players are comfortable with workload-related calls made by the team management. “We have to have faith in our strength and conditioning coaches. These calls of workload, who should play when, who should not play, they are completely on the guys who are professionals and it is their call,” Hardik said.

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