Hardik Pandya Pushes To Become Like His Favourite All-Rounder

Jul 31, 2017 at 8:35 PM

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Hardik Pandya Pushes To Become Like His Favourite All-Rounder

Team India’s all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who is referred as a ‘rockstar’ among his teammates, has somehow hinted and would eventually love to become like his favourite and former all-rounder Jacques Kallis from South Africa, who had been an integral part of the Proteas success stories in the gentleman’s game during his international career.

“My favourite has always been Jacques Kallis,” Pandya was quoted as saying by PTI.

  • Hardik Pandya’s 50 on his Test debut
  • Favourite all-rounder Jacques Kallis
  • Solitary wicket in the maiden game after bowling 10 overs
  • Made International debut in 2016 against Australia
  • Fastest fifty in any ICC tournament final (50 off 32 balls)

Interestingly, soon after India claimed a biggest overseas overall win in terms of runs (304), skipper Virat Kohli revealed he would be happier and delighted to see Pandya doing what promising Ben Stokes has done, both with ball and the bat for England, across all formats of the game in the contemporary cricket.

The Gujarat-born Pandya has effusively praised the efforts of Kallis while coming to bat at number three and score bulk of runs for his team while filling up the wickets column at his will.

“For his amazing record across all formats and while scoring big runs batting at Number 3 and all those wickets,” Pandya added.

The 23-year-old Pandya has taken a long stride to Test setup after playing good amount of limited-overs cricket – to set his eye in the white jersey game.

(Read Out: Hardik Pandya Will Be India’s Ben Stokes Believes Virat Kohli)

After being shown full faith by captain Kohli, Pandya was inducted into the Playing XI during the Galle Test where he has scored 50 in his first innings.

“The scenario was perfect for me. As an international cricketer, you need to be smart as in terms of preparation,” Pandya maintained.

Interestingly, Pandya, who registered his maiden fifty in 49 deliveries, revealed he felt he was featuring in One-day Internationals.

Remember, his whirlwind knock against Pakistan in the recently concluded final of 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, Pandya was determinant and went after the Sri Lankan bowlers this time around in the different ball game, as his knock included five boundaries and three sixes while scoring at the strike-rate of 102.04. Photo Credit: Getty Images.

“It felt like I was playing one-day cricket,” Pandya remarked.

Playing the vital role down the order, Pandya helped visitors to stretch to 600-run mark in the first innings after he was equally supported by Mohammad Shami and then Umesh Yadav.

“While switching formats, there is a switch in mindset but skill sets generally don’t change,” Pandya asserted.

While bursting into laughter during the one-on-one interview on BCCI’s digital medium top-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara complimented Pandya about his pull shot while further asking him about his thoughts as a batsman to hit six sixes in an over, as the latter was seen experimenting with his hairdo.

Moreover, Pandya has expressed to give his best while preparing for the foreseeable fixtures while adding South Africa won’t be an easy place to settle down, as it would require commitment and complete detection in the practice.

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