The new kid on the block
Until the very end of India’s innings against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 on Sunday, Hardik Pandya didn’t know that he would be needed to bat. Pandya was told to pad up by Anil Kumble, the coach, even as Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli were taking the Pakistan bowlers apart, with barely two overs left in the game.
By : migrator
Update: 2017-06-05 16:57 GMT
“I got to know in the 46th over, when coach told me, ‘You will be going next, go pad up.’ Obviously, I padded up quickly and once I got my gloves, I went out straightaway because Yuvi paa got out,” Pandya told ICC at Edgbaston in Birmingham after India’s win.
The 23-year-old Pandya was chosen to go in ahead of MS Dhoni, a OneDay International legend, and Kedar Jadhav who has built a growing reputation as an inventive and big-hitting limited-overs batsman.
The reasoning was simple: the young Pandya has the ability to smash the ball from the word go. And smash it is exactly what he did. He took a single off his first ball – in the 47th over of an innings reduced to 48 – and was facing up to Imad Wasim’s left-arm spin in the last over.
The first ball was in the slot, full outside off, and Pandya promptly sent it sailing over long-off. The next ball was wider, but on a similar length, and was hit with even more power over the ropes. The third ball was all about Pandya showing his power-hitting ability, slog-sweeping over midwicket to have three sixes in three balls.
It gave India a rousing finish, with 23 runs eventually coming off the final over and taking the total to a daunting 319 for 3. Pandya’s contribution was an unbeaten 20 that came off a mere six deliveries. The method to Pandya’s hitting was simple: belief in his ability.
“When I saw the left-arm spinner, I knew that I could go for it,” he revealed. “It’s all about backing yourself. I always feel that in cricket, you need to back yourself and be confident. Once you are confident, you take the right decision and eventually that pays off.”
Self-belief has played a large role in Pandya’s rise, to the point where he is establishing himself as an indispensable cog in India’s white-ball setup. It helped him deal with the extra pressure that an India-Pakistan clash brings. “Honestly I won’t lie, pressure was there,” he admitted.
“But still at the back of my mind, I was thinking of it as a normal game because I didn’t want to take unnecessary pressure. In any game, I wouldn’t want to take unnecessary pressure on myself because that makes you do something that you are not supposed to do. Pandya had a good outing with the ball too, taking 2 for 43 in eight nippy overs.
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