The 26-year-old all-rounder Hardik Pandya has now become an important member of the Indian national cricket team. Recently, he has revealed one of MS Dhoni‘s advices in early days that he always follows and it gives him a very positive result.
After impressing in domestic cricket as a pace-bowling all-rounder, Hardik Pandya made his debut for the Indian team in January 2016. Since then, he has grown up his all-rounder skills and fixed his spot in the national team.
Till the date, Hardik has played 11 Tests, 54 ODIs and 40 T20Is where the right-handed batsman has scored 1,799 runs (532 Test runs, 957 ODI runs and 310 T20I runs) and the right-arm medium-fast bowler has also picked up 107 wickets (17 Test wickets, 54 ODI wickets and 38 T20I wickets).
During the initial period of his career, MS Dhoni advised him how to handle the game pressure. Dhoni told Hardik not to focus his score on the scoreboard, and the all-rounder admitted that it worked for him.
Hardik recently said according to India Today, “MS told me once that if you want to get rid off the pressure of your own pressure then stop looking at your score on the scoreboard. Put the team in front and you will never feel the pressure. To be honest, since then I have never felt that kind of pressure that I used to feel earlier.”
There is no such thing as a natural game: Rahul Dravid to Hardik Pandya
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya opened up another story where Rahul Dravid gave him real advice. In that period, the former Indian captain Rahul Dravid was the head coach of the India A team. Hardik got a sudden opportunity to tour in Australia as the replacement of injured Vijay Shankar. While he was advised to play his natural game, Rahul Dravid told him that there was no such thing as a natural game.
Hardik added, “So what happened was, I was with the Baroda state team. I got a call from BCCI, saying I might have to fly to Australia as Vijay Shankar has got an injury or something. So I went there and in a meeting someone said that I am going to play my natural game. So, Rahul Dravid did not agree to that and said there is no (such) thing as natural game.”
The all-rounder Hardik Pandya added that Dravid advised him to play the game according to the situation.