With bat and ball, Pandya is making a strong case

Until the very end of India’s innings against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 on Sunday (June 4), Hardik Pandya didn’t know that he would be needed to bat. Pandya was told to pad up by Anil Kumble, the coach, even as Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli were taking the Pakistan bowlers apart, with barely two overs left in the game.

“I got to know in the 46th over, when coach told me, ‘You will be going next, go pad up.’ Obviously, I padded up quickly and once I got my gloves, I went out straightaway because Yuvi paa got out,” Pandya told ICC at Edgbaston in Birmingham after India’s 124-run win (via DLS) to kick off its Champions Trophy defence successfully.

The 23-year-old Pandya was chosen to go in ahead of MS Dhoni, a One-Day International legend, and Kedar Jadhav, who has built a growing reputation as an inventive and big-hitting limited-overs batsman. The reasoning was simple: the young Pandya has the ability to smash the ball from the get-go.

And smash it is exactly what he did. He took a single off his first ball – in the 47th over of an innings reduced to 48 – and was facing up to Imad Wasim’s left-arm spin in the last over. The first ball was in the slot, full outside off, and Pandya promptly sent it sailing over long-off. The next ball was wider, but on a similar length, and was hit with even more power over the ropes. The third ball was all about Pandya showing his power-hitting ability, slog-sweeping over midwicket to have three sixes in three balls. It gave India a rousing finish, with 23 runs eventually coming off the final over and taking the total to a daunting 319 for 3. Pandya’s contribution was an unbeaten 20 that came off a mere six deliveries.

The method to Pandya’s hitting was simple: belief in his ability. “When I saw the left-arm spinner, I knew that I could go for it,” he revealed. “It’s all about backing yourself. I always feel that in cricket, you need to back yourself and be confident. Once you are confident, you take the right decision and eventually that pays off.”

Self-belief has played a large role in Pandya’s rise, to the point where he is establishing himself as an indispensable cog in India’s white-ball set-up. It helped him deal with the extra pressure that an India-Pakistan clash brings. “Honestly I won’t lie, pressure was there,” he admitted. “But still at the back of my mind, I was thinking of it as a normal game because I didn’t want to take unnecessary pressure. In any game, I wouldn’t want to take unnecessary pressure on myself because that makes you do something that you are not supposed to do.

“Even this game, I was keeping pretty normal. I was pretty calm, composed. I tried not to think of it as a big match as well, just take it as a normal game, an important game for India like any match we play. And eventually we did pretty well and won it.”

Pandya had a good outing with the ball too, taking 2 for 43 in eight nippy overs, snuffing out the last bit of Pakistan’s resistance with the wickets of Sarfraz Ahmed, the captain, and Wasim. His bustling pace was often deceptive, with batsmen being hurried or late on to their shots. With greater consistency in his bowling, Pandya could well develop into a genuine all-rounder.

Being the fifth bowler in an attack that had Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja didn’t faze him. Pandya knows he has earned his spot in the team, and offers that X-factor which could take India to greater heights in limited-overs formats.

“Honestly, I don’t think I have any pressure because I have been playing regularly,” he said candidly. “I am not playing in place of anyone, it’s just the requirement of the team based on the conditions on offer. Since I made my international debut, I have played all the games that I was part of the squad for, except for one which I sat out in Visakhapatnam.”

The confidence in his abilities meant that the thought that with a steep target to chase, Pakistan’s batsmen would come hard at him was never a worry either.

“Obviously, with the score they were chasing, I always knew that not just me, they are going to charge every bowler,” he explained. “We had to back ourselves and bowl the right areas which we did, and that’s why we got the wickets. That always pays off. If you bowl the right areas, the hard lengths, it pays. I was only focussing on what I can do and not what the batsmen can do. That always helps.”

For now, by showing how he can explode with the bat and that he can be called on to be a reliable member of the bowling attack, Pandya has set a good early tone in India’s Champions Trophy defence.