Hardik Pandya’s downward spiral began last year against Bangladesh in a 50-over World Cup game, but the star all-rounder has always believed that fortune favors the brave if they stick around. First it was back to back injuries that kept him out for four months and then two very difficult months in the IPL as captain of MI, there was no silver lining for India’s best all-rounder in contemporary times until this T20 World Cup where he got his mojo back .
“I was lucky to play for the country, it was a strange injury I had, I wanted to come back but God had other plans,” Pandya said after scoring a 27-ball fifty and taking one wicket in India’s 50-over victory over Bangladesh.
In fact, it was against Bangladesh, albeit in a different World Cup format, that Pandya was injured.
“I was talking to our coach Rahul sir (Dravid) and he said, ‘Luck comes to people who work hard’ and that stayed with me for a long time,” said Pandya, who won the Man of the Match award in this day. .
“We played very good cricket. More than anything, we stood together and executed our plans.”
Earlier, Pandya’s half-century and contributions from Virat Kohli (37), Rishabh Pant (36) and Shivam Dube (34) took India to 196 for 5 after being put into bat.
He had predicted at half-time that it would be enough.
“Wicket looked good, par would have been 180, we got 196. That’s a good score here,” Pandya told broadcasters at the innings break.
He also praised Dube, who has so far struggled, for playing a composed innings under pressure.
“The moment Shivam came in, a few wickets were lost. He had to take his time and we did well to recover. His strength is knocking down spinners.
“When the time came, when we could go strong, we went (after bowling) after that,” Pandya said.
The star all-rounder believed the pitch would slow down as the match progressed.
“It definitely tends to get slower towards the end, some balls would slip when bowled at the right length, discipline and good bowling should sort it out.”
There was a lot of crosswind blowing at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and Pandya talked about how to use the breeze.
“I realized the batsmen wanted to use the breeze, I made sure I didn’t give them a chance where the wind was blowing, it was about being one step ahead as a batsman.” Pandya agreed that there is room for improvement as a batting unit.
“We as a group can improve in a lot of places, losing wickets in groups is something we can correct and improve on, other than that we are fine.”
Ashwin’s opinion on individual scores
Meanwhile, senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, also one of the most astute analysts among active international cricketers, said that the time has come for fans to look at the impactful 20s and 30s as good contributions rather than milestones of half a century or century.
“We are not used to an approach where batsmen bowl out after making 30/20, but it is high time we adopt an approach like this, especially when we bat first.
“Main intention of all Indian batsmen so far,” Ashwin wrote in X about India reaching almost 200 with just a half-century and three contributions over 30.
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