Hardik Pandya: Freewheeler turned responsible finisher

The dashing Hardik Pandya has proved to be the solution to India’s search for an attacking middle-order batsman who can provide the cushion of striking big at the death. A lot of change in Hardik’s approach can be seen from his first impression on the big stage in 2015 through the IPL. Making his IPL debut that season for Mumbai Indians, the younger Pandya came as a proper spin-basher who could chip in with a few overs of pace bowling.

A slow start

Pandya’s multidimensional skills got him into the Indian team by the start of 2016 and he was drafted into the squad for the World T20 at home. But minimal success with the bat in the Indian colours and a poor 2016 IPL saw him carry the tag of a ‘spin basher’. His efforts to hit out didn’t seem to succeed even until the end of 2018. Hardik’s contributions at the death during Mumbai Indians’ triumph in 2017 earned him a lot of value.

He did seem to get better against the pacers as he scored a bulk of runs against them. Hardik’s improvement in playing the pacers showed in the ODI format where he played useful knocks when the top order collapsed on certain occasions. But it took a sensational IPL 2019 for Hardik to get widespread acclaim for his effort against speedsters irrespective of the phase he plays them in.

A matured batsman

In the 2019 IPL, Hardik had a strike rate of 191.85 against pacers at the death, which came at an average of over 30. But the questions over Hardik remained whether he can be the reliable option that India was looking for after the retirement of MS Dhoni. Pandya showed his excellence in this aspect in the 2020 IPL where Mumbai Indians won the title for a record fifth time.

This was followed by some exceptional performances for India on their 2020 tour of Australia making everyone believe that Hardik Pandya has truly arrived. Pandya registered two scores of 90+ in the ODI series, both coming in different situations after a top-order collapse. The unbeaten knock in the 2nd T20I was a reflection of his IPL career where he has played similar knocks for the Mumbai Indians but alongside Kieron Pollard. However, for India, Pandya showed that he can do it alone. His batting has definitely improved a lot in the last four years – and it bodes well for Indian cricket in the years to come.