Hardik Pandya’s career has taken full flight after his sizzling performances this year. The 24-year-old all-rounder bagged the Man of the Match award on his ODI debut last year, but could not quite manage to live up to the hype early on.
However, he has turned his career around this year with his all-round exploits and has now become an integral part of the team across formats. He played an instrumental role in Mumbai Indians’ title triumph in this year’s Indian Premier League and had not looked back since then.
After an impressive outing in the Champions Trophy, where he scored a whirlwind fifty in the final against Pakistan, he impressed in West Indies and was handed his Test debut in Sri Lanka.
The Baroda star fully justified the decision with a quickfire fifty on his debut before giving a Man of the Match performance in the third Test, as he scored 108 runs off 96 balls including eight fours and seven sixes. He did even better in the last series against Australia, scoring 222 runs and taking six wickets to bag his first Man of the Series award.
But with success coming thick and fast his way, Pandya is not getting carried away and is looking to take one step at a time. The all-rounder has said he likes to play against the big teams and is ‘pretty excited’ with the roles he has been assigned to the team.
“I just want to take it day by day. I want to live in the present. I do get excited by a few series like South Africa and New Zealand. I like to play big teams. I’m pretty excited about the role I have,” Pandya told The Hindu.
“I might not do well, but that’s part and parcel of the game. It’s important to get things right before a game. If I prepare well, I don’t think anything will stop me,” he added.
The road ahead is only going to get tougher for Pandya. India is set to tour extensively in the next couple of years to play challenging series in England, South Africa and Australia. However, Pandya is not overthinking about the future and insisted that he would not change his style during overseas games.
“I don’t think much about it. For me, it won’t change. My approach will be the same as it has been for a series in India. It (the challenges) might be difficult, but obviously difficult things are nice,” he said.
“When you overcome difficult things, the happiness and the confidence you get is nice, so I look at it in the same way,” he added.
Comparisons in cricket are inevitable, and Pandya has not been spared either. Ever since his impressive all round exploits, he has been compared with the legendary Kapil Dev, but India’s rising star once again downplayed the comparisons.
“As I have said earlier, if I achieve even 10 per cent of what he has in his life, it would be a huge achievement. I don’t think anyone needs to compare me with anyone. I may have sounded laughable when I said two years ago that India won’t need an all-rounder now (that I have arrived),” he said.” I don’t need comparisons with anyone. They are greats, let them be greats.
“The tag that they have, they deserve it. Let me play as Hardik Pandya. Simple as that,” he added.