India's latest sensation Hardik Pandya is a classic example of how a player can develop, both skill-wise and confidence-wise, if he has the backing of the team management
Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya during his six-ball 20 against Pakistan on Sunday
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Hardik Pandya is a classic example of how a player can develop, both skill-wise and confidence-wise, if he has the backing of the team management. Pandya is slowly but surely making a mark to the extent that he could soon become an integral part of Team India. And the way he's being groomed, there's little doubt that he could well emerge as the handy all-rounder that India have been seeking.
A medium-pacer, who can bat is always an asset in English conditions, and Pandya showed that during the high-voltage ICC Champions Trophy match against Pakistan at Edgbaston on Sunday. Self-belief has played a big part in Pandya's rising stock and it also helped him absorb the immense 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 because that makes you do something that you are not supposed to do.
"Even this game, I was keeping it pretty normal. I was pretty calm, composed. I tried not to think of it as a big match but to just take it as a normal game, an important game for India like any match we play. And eventually we did pretty well and won."
After being promoted ahead of MS Dhoni in the batting line-up in the final overs, Pandya hammered three successive sixes in the final over of the innings for a six-ball 20. Pakistan never recovered from those blows that helped India set a huge target.
Pandya had a good outing with the ball too, taking two for 43 in eight nippy overs, snuffing out the last bit of Pakistani resistance with the wickets of skipper Sarfraz Ahmed and Imad Wasim, off whom he had hit those three sixes earlier. Pandya's bowling looks innocuous, but he can generate good, deceptive pace to hurry the batsmen. With greater consistency in his bowling, he could well develop into a top-class all-rounder.
Hardik Pandya statistics in ODIS
ODI debut: Oct 16, 2016
ODIs - 8
Runs - 180
Average - 60
Highest score - 56
Strike rate -128.57
Wickets - 11
Best bowling - 3/31
Economy rate - 5.74
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