Hardik Pandya is seen as a future Indian captain by many greats and experts of the game. The 29-year-old all-rounder has impressed in the limited opportunities he has had till date to lead the side. He won his third straight T20I series as India captain on Saturday (January 7), when the Men in Blue got the better of Sri Lanka by 91 runs in the third game. It was his sixth win in nine matches as captain of the Indian cricket team.
Hardik’s stature as captain has grown multiple folds in the last 10 months, and it all started with the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, where he captained the Gujarat Titans. In his maiden IPL tournament as captain, Hardik not only impressed but also won the IPL title for the Ahmedabad-based side.
It has been a stunning turnaround for Pandya, who has never captained any senior team before he was handed the responsibility by the Titans. Speaking to reporters after India’s T20I series win over Sri Lanka, Hardik opened up about his captaincy and said that he had captained a team only once, at the U-16 level, and never before or since.
“I have never led in junior cricket as well. When I was in under 16, I had led for Baroda, but after that, everyone said I should concentrate on my own game, and so since then, I had not really led a team,” Pandya said.
The star all-rounder said that all the credit for him being a successful captain at this point in time should go to former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra, who works with him in the IPL as the head coach of the Gujarat Titans.
“What has been very important was the kind of coach I worked with at Gujarat Titans. Ashish Nehra made a big difference in my life; we are very similar in terms of cricketing thoughts. We might be two different personalities, but when it comes to cricket, we are very similar. Because when I was with him, it added more value to my captaincy. It helped me get exactly what I needed. It was just about getting assurance; I always knew that I had a certain awareness of the game. It was just about kind of backing what I know already,” he said.
The Baroda cricketer was made the India captain for the first time in a two-match away series against Ireland in June, and then he led the side in the fifth T20I against the West Indies in August, when Rohit Sharma was rested. After the T20 World Cup 2022, he was handed the responsibility once again to lead the side in New Zealand, where he won the second match after the first one got washed out and the third ended in a tie. When Rohit Sharma was out with a knee injury, Hardik captained again against Sri Lanka, winning two of the three games.
