How Hardik Pandya found his groove again
After a tough IPL, Hardik Pandya took a break in London to heal mentally. His stellar performance in the T20 World Cup proved his resilience and talent.
MUMBAI: After the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL), while the rest of the India players flew straight to New York travelling in batches, Hardik Pandya chose to go to London to spend a few quiet days ahead of the T20 World Cup. After a two-month IPL, he was in good shape physically but mentally, it was a different story.
Pandya needed to heal the scars left by a humiliating experience of being incessantly booed by his own home crowd in Mumbai. A clear mind was needed to think and plan his approach for the World Cup.
“I spoke to Hardik and he said: ‘Sir, I am taking a break, going to London, and I will be joining the team straight from there’. He was preparing himself what he wanted to do for India. He loves playing for India,” says Kiran More, Pandya’s mentor who has helped him develop into a champion cricketer from his young days in Baroda.
The IPL was the toughest period of Pandya’s career. He had faced the ire of fans at every venue Mumbai Indians played in after he had replaced the popular Rohit Sharma as captain for the season. It was a disaster in every sense. MI finished at the bottom and Pandya never got going as a player either. The one thing he did prove was his fitness.
In October 2023, he suffered an injury in the middle of the ODI World Cup at home which put him out of the tournament. This moment seemed to change the course of his career. The long recovery period led to uncertainty over his availability. He had been the frontrunner for T20 captaincy till that point, but the Indian cricket board couldn’t take a chance. They went back to Rohit after his success at the ODI World Cup, both as a captain and batter.
This is why the London stop was vital. He needed to clear his mind and focus on the job ahead in USA and the Caribbean. It worked.
In the warm-up match, against Bangladesh, what struck everyone was how clean his hitting was. At a venue where batters were like cats on hot tin roofs, he was middling the ball beautifully. A couple of other batters too got runs but not with the same authority with which he scored an unbeaten 40 off 23 balls with four sixes.
To More, it was a sign that the original version of Hardik was back.
“From the first ball, he was striking the ball beautifully. When you look at the tournament, he scored some crucial runs for India,” says More, highlighting Hardik’s crucial knocks in each of the Super Eight games and the semifinal. “By picking up 11 wickets in the tournament he showed that he is one of the best all-rounders in world cricket.”
If Yuvraj Singh was the one who provided the balance at the 2011 World Cup, Hardik was the key for the team this time with crucial breakthroughs and valuable runs.
It was the result of the immense self-belief merged with world-class skills. The same player, however, couldn’t put bat to ball in perfect batting pitches in the IPL.
How did he pick his game up after the scars of IPL?
“He was batting well, (but) when you are struggling mentally in the tournament, your team is losing, there’s so much pressure, there’s a lot of hue and cry. Best thing is he went away, kept a low profile and prepared for the World Cup. He wanted to do well for India. The dream came true for him,” says More. “Some players have that confidence, that self-belief. That was there in him.”
In the final, bowling the last over, Pandya displayed icy nerves to finish with three wickets. In the IPL, he looked rattled by the series of defeats as MI became the first time to be knocked out of the tournament. How did he recover from that?
“Mentally, this boy has come up in life in a very difficult way (circumstances), what he has gone through in the last six months, it was difficult. I was very confident he is going to do well in this World Cup, because I know his character. He has faced a lot of things in life, for him it is always a challenge. He didn’t utter a single word till now. Only now, he spoke his heart out. You didn’t see any statement for the last three months. He had told me one year back, I want to win a World Cup for India, now he has done it,” More sid.
During the tournament, there were many important contributions from the Baroda player, but the moment which won over even his harshest of critics had to be when he took out Heinrich Klaasen in the 17th over. Klaasen had almost prised out the game from India’s hands with a belligerent 52 off 27 balls. It was a telling blow on SA. When Hardik and Bumrah came on to bowl, the match looked lost -- 30 balls off 30 runs with six wickets in hand.
“I was telling my family, “Hardik is going to get two wickets”. You need guts to bowl in that situation and pick up wickets, cutting down on speed, changing your pace, and picking the wicket of Klaasen was a crucial one,” More says.
“When you are down, people really pull you down. For him it was a huge challenge, to come back from that situation, that shows what Hardik is made of. Full marks to Rahul Dravid also, the way he has taken care of him.”
The most poignant moment came right at the end when Rohit planted a kiss on Hardik’s cheek in the middle of his TV interview.
“That shows the class of Rohit as well. He is a chill man, he is a good leader, he knows who has done well, who is a team man. You always have small things in life, but when you are playing for India, you are a family, and he is a leader. So that touch was excellent. That sums up everything.”
Most of all, his IPL franchise, MI, would have heaved a sigh of relief. How to change the public’s opinion in Pandya’s favour had become a big challenge for them. It was hurting their brand. To win over the crowd, there’s nothing like doing it for the country on the biggest stage. With his exploits and showing he is a team man first, Pandya has won the hearts of all Indians.
And the next time, he plays at the Wankhede, he is sure to feel the love.
