Hardik Pandya had no previous experience of leading any team, be it age level or state level cricket. However, he made the team champion for the first time in IPL by being the captain of Gujarat Titans. He even led India in a total of eight T20 matches and ended the series by winning six of them. The current Indian T20 team captain Hardik Pandya said that he has improved his leadership under the advice of Gujarat Titans head coach Ashish Nehra.
Hardik has not lost any series as the captain of the Indian team. How did you become a leader? Responding to that question, Hardik said, “I don’t remember captaining the team more than once at the age level. I captained Baroda once at the under-16 level. Since then I have been told to concentrate on my game. So I haven’t captained any team.”
Hardik said the hero behind his rise as a captain is former cricketer Ashish Nehra. In his words, “Gujarat Titans, who I trained with, made me confident as a captain. Ashish Nehra has played an important role in my life. We are different personalities. But there is not much difference in cricketing mind-set. I have improved in leadership with him.”
Hardik also said, “Whether I knew it or not, I understood more from him. Ashish taught me to understand what is right and what is wrong. But there was no doubt that I had a clear understanding and idea of cricket. Ashish helped greatly in steering the idea in the right direction.”
Former cricketers are also happy with Hardik’s leadership. Among them is legendary former opener Sunil Gavaskar. He feels that credit goes to Hardik for the positive mentality that is being seen among the young cricketers in the team. Congratulating the new skipper, former India off spinner Harbhajan Singh tweeted, “Well done Captain Hardik. Your young team has played fantastic cricket.”
Hardik said that running a team with young cricketers is not a very difficult task. That task is much easier than dealing with seniors. Rather, if young cricketers are in the team, there will be one or two mistakes. If you accept that, the work becomes much easier. In Hardik’s words, “In cricket, you have to adapt yourself at every moment. The more you adapt, the more successful you will be.”
Suryakumar’s brilliance impressed many cricketers
Suryakumar Yadav is another name for surprise! That was the initial reaction of his teammates after watching his incredible batting against Sri Lanka in Rajkot on Saturday.
Skipper Hardik Pandya was heard to say, “Surya continues to surprise at every moment. Seeing him, everyone is starting to think, how easy batting is! If he had batted against me and played those indescribable shots, believe me, I would have completely collapsed.”
On Saturday, Surya scored 112 with fifty-one balls. Seven boundaries and nine sixes in the innings. Every moment explains why he is literally a 360 degree batter! Virat Kohli is also impressed.