When Gujarat Titans named Hardik Pandya as captain, cynics had questioned that decision, but he went on to win the Indian Premier League in the franchise’s debut season last year. This year, they emerged victorious against the man he idolises—MS Dhoni—in the tournament opener on Saturday. 

The India all-rounder was happy with the five-wicket win, but at the same time he accepted that the Titans had a lot to learn and could have even lost to Chennai Super Kings. “[It’s] good to start the tournament with a win, but we can learn quite a lot of things from this victory and even if we had lost, we would have learnt a lot,” Pandya said in a measured tone at the post-match media interaction that literally went into the next day.