With his elevation to becoming the India captain for the two-match T20I series against Ireland, the rise of Hardik Pandya the leader has been meteoric. In IPL 2022, Pandya was the gel that kept the Gujarat Titans together in their run to the trophy in their maiden season.
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Throughout the tournament, Pandya was leading Gujarat from the front, taking the charge with the bat at either number three or four, something which he hardly got to do in his previous franchise Mumbai Indians.
Pandya was the anchor Gujarat needed with the bat before unleashing his stroke play in the back end of the innings, amassing 487 in 15 innings at an average of 44.27 and strike rate of 131.26. With the ball too, he was chipping in occasionally, with his spell of 3/17 in the final at home ground in Ahmedabad proving to be match-winning.
Mohammad Kaif was also in the Narendra Modi Stadium on the day of the IPL 2022 final and was impressed with what he saw of Pandya the captain. “I was there at the ground for the finals in Ahmedabad. I saw him captaining there live. His field placement was outstanding. He is also a good man-manager because the way his players performed under pressure told me the story of nice vibes around the team.
“He’s backing his players; he was standing at mid-off and was talking to his players, especially to the bowlers when they felt the pressure in terms of bowling in death overs. If you ask me personally, I was very impressed with his captaincy. There are a lot of teams playing the IPL from the very first year (and) have not done what Hardik did winning the IPL title as a captain in the very first year,” said Kaif in a virtual interaction organized by Sony Sports.
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Kaif, who represented India in 125 ODIs and 13 Tests, sees Pandya’s promotion to India’s captaincy as a reward for captaining and proving his leadership credentials as a Gujarat Titans skipper in IPL 2022.
“When he captained, what I saw as a player was in Hardik Pandya, he’s ticked most boxes in captaincy. Because of winning the toss and seeing the conditions, he was spot-on (with his decision-making). Sometimes he batted first, he chased the target, giving the roles to batters as well as bowlers. Also, his form was very crucial, he was batting at three, four; coming into power-play and batted till the end apart from bowling a few overs.
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“Hardik did a good job with captaincy and if you see with Gujarat Titans, you could say they were not the strongest side after the auction. Few other franchises had done a good job. But it’s about how you play and perform on the field on that day. You want to pick the best eleven to win the series (against Ireland). Hardik can do that; he has done well for Gujarat.” Kaif said.
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