Hardik Pandya 2.0: How did the transformation happen?

Hardik Pandya has hardly put a foot wrong ever since he returned to competitive cricket in the IPL last March. A streak, which continued with his audacious Man of the Match-winning performance in their opening win of the Asia Cup in Dubai in the big game against Pakistan.   

The sense of occasion about his dramatic comeback – it was the same venue, same opponent and even the same tournament four years back when he collapsed with a back injury – was not lost on him either. The Indian allrounder, who looks a transformed character in his new avatar, looked back at a gruelling journey after their nerve-wracking win on Sunday.

‘’I remember how I was being stretchered out. It was this same dressing room. This (his journey after injury) feels like an achievement because of the opportunities I have got after facing what I faced. This journey has been beautiful,’’ he told Ravindra Jadeja after the duo held their nerves to take the Men in Blue over the line.

What was equally important was that Pandya’s match-winning performance had exorcised quite a few ghosts for Indian cricket in front of a packed Dubai International Stadium. It was barely 10 months back that Babar Azam’s men famously turned the tables on India in their opening match in the last T20 World Cup, while the Pandya conundrum proved a major headache for the Indian think tank as he was still not fit to bowl – posing a crisis in terms of fifth bowler in the side.

An inconsequential group game against Namibia in the World T20 was Pandya’s last appearance in a Indian shirt last year. When he came back in competitive cricket as the captain of Gujarat Titans in the IPL more than five months later, it was a different Pandya altogether.

What did he exactly bring to the table as Pandya 2.0? It was not merely working hard on his body to strengthen the back muscles – which would dispel his own self doubts about going flat out in his bowling again – but almost grafting a change in the DNA of Pandya the cricketer.

Now 28, Pandya must have realised that it was time to take himself seriously as the performer so that his place in white ball cricket can be put beyond question. A few months after he lay sprawled, writhing in agony in Dubai, Pandya got into a needless controversy along with KL Rahul his misogynist remarks in a TV chat show – leading to a financial penalty levied by the BCCI – and a loss of face.

The abilities of the younger of the Pandya brothers as a seaming allrounder was never in question – and in fact paved the way for a call-up in the Test set-up early in his international career. It was the so-called attitude – part of which could be attributed to the rough growing up years for the brothers who saw cricket as a possible route of escape from poverty – which aided in creating such a perception.

The way 2022 has gone for him so far, it could well be a watershed year in Pandya’s career. A chastening factor came in late 2021 itself, in Pandya’s own words, when Mumbai Indians released both the brothers – hence the chance offered by Gujarat Titans was almost like the proverbial last straw to resurrect his career. Away from the prying eyes of the media in Baroda, where the Pandya brothers grew up, Hardik sweated it out early this year and came out with flying colours in the Yo-Yo test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) with a score of 18.

This is the Pandya India needs badly in the T20 World Cup later this year in Australia and of course, in the 50-overs World Cup in India next year. The team management needs to monitor his progress carefully as there are lots to come from the maverick character – from being a matchwinner to a fulltime T20 captain sooner than later!

The Titans’ cricket management also deserves a big thumbs up for showing their faith in the untried Pandya as their captain. Unlike Rahul, already a captain-in-waiting for India who was named the skipper for the other new franchise, Pandya was still a man of suspect fitness and temperament when the IPL began. It was a calculated risk by the Titans – and how well Pandya responded to the task.

‘’The success of the team will be theirs, the failure is mine,’’ Pandya began by making the right noises as a skipper. The increased responsibility brought out a thinking cricketer in Pandya which we thought never existed. Much in contrast to his batting role for MI, Pandya was expected to come up the order to rally their innings in a batting order short on big names – and an aggregate of 487 runs from 15 games tells it’s own story.

There was a new-found calmness in his game, which often reminded one of M.S.Dhoni, as Pandya marshalled the chases by taking them deep – albeit being aided by the brilliance of David Miller and Rahul Tewatia lower down the order. The real surprise lay, of course, lay in his bowling as he was not afraid to bend his back – clocking between 135 and 140 kmph – hitting the seam from a back of length which made him so difficult to score off.

He carried on the good work in both the white ball series in England, emerging as the Man of the Series in the ODIs and had been simply unstoppable in the last three months since the IPL.

In T20Is this year (till the Pakistan match), Pandya has scored 314 runs across 13 innings in 14 matches at an average of 34.88. He has scored one half-century and a number of other valuable innings, while he has also taken 11 wickets for his side in 14 matches with best figures of 4/33.

This is the Pandya India needs badly in the T20 World Cup later this year in Australia and of course, in the 50-overs World Cup in India next year. The team management needs to monitor his progress carefully as there are lots to come from the maverick character – from being a matchwinner to a fulltime T20 captain sooner than later!