Hardik Pandya will be the gamechanger for India and can be Man of the Tournament should India make the last four, feels Indian batsman Suresh Raina. The left-handed batsman has heaped praises on Pandya before the start of the tournament and has opined that Pandya is a crucial player for team India in the tournament.
“He can field and bat well, can bowl 6-7 crucial overs. He can bat anywhere. He needs to get a lot of confidence from the management to express himself. If he can take his IPL confidence to the World Cup, he will be our gamechanger,” Raina told PTI.
“I think he will be the most important player for India in this World Cup. I won’t be surprised if he gets the man of the tournament, should we make the last four,” he added.
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As Raina said, Pandya will be the key if India do well in the tournament. He has already proved his all-around skills at all levels and given his fielding skills as well, Pandya is a complete package for team India presently.
During the tournament, he might also have an additional responsibility of being the third front-line pacer. He has performed this role in past as well. He had bagged Man of the Match award for his bowling on his ODI debut, where he scalped three wickets.
In the lead up to the tournament, Pandya did well for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2019. He scored 402 runs batting with a strike-rate of 191.42 and also 12 scalped wickets. He had missed the series against Australia due to back issue and made a strong comeback during the T20 league.
Team India does have a pace-bowling all-rounder in the squad in form of Vijay Shankar but Pandya is an automatic selection in playing X and will be playing all the matches, above Shankar. The latter could find himself in the playing XI if he is used as a number four batsman.
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Pandya, as said, will be one of the most important players for India in the World Cup and has the ability to change the game on his head.
India kick off their World Cup 2019 campaign against South Africa on June 5. Prior to that, the team will play its last warm-up match today against Bangladesh today.
Men in Blue had faced New Zealand in their first warm-up match last week where they lost after failing to defend a mere score of 179.