RANCHI : Nineteen international matches old, with 16 of them being T20s, Hardik Pandya is every inch a cricketer of the T20 age. He is of the exuberantly-aggressive variety who would make for dramatic viewing on the hectic stage of the shortest version, whether it is batting, bowling, fielding, or even cheering and celebrating.
But ask him what position is best for Mahendra Singh Dhoni or himself, and he ducks it like an experienced batsman avoiding a bouncer. Mature enough to say that only the captain can speak about that, the 23-year old is pragmatic in choosing his words.
“I want to focus more on my own job,” Pandya said at the JSCA Stadium on Tuesday, the eve of the fourth ODI against New Zealand. “Which ever number or role you get, you need to play according to the situation.” That bit of maturity had come in for all-round praise when he nearly helped India to a sensational win in the second match in New Delhi after being eight down with 54 runs more needed while chasing 236.
Suddenly, Pandya finds himself among those being touted as potentially the finisher that India is searching for. While it maybe too early to take a call on that, he has certainly shown enough promise to become the pace-bowling all-rounder — at least in the limited-over formats — that India have seldom had since Kapil Dev.
Having added a bit of muscle to his tall frame, Pandya is touching the 140km mark with the new ball and getting it to move as well, as evidenced during his debut performance of 3/31 in Dharamsala. He is definitely putting in the hard yards too, after having made his T20I bow in January.
“I was putting in the same effort before the IPL or the (T20) World Cup. Just that I’ve worked on my fitness. I’ve definitely worked on my bowling when I got time,” the Baroda all-rounder said.The good student is enjoying the privilege of watching from close quarters how limited-over masters like Dhoni and Virat Kohli are going about while taming situations and constructing match-changing innings. “There are a lot of things to learn when both of them bat… about batting and running between the wickets, which are at another level,” Pandya observed.
Well. He knows his place in the team. And that might be a good starting point for his evolution.