After IPL fiasco, T20 World Cup has given Hardik Pandya a chance at redemption

For Hardik Pandya, IPL 2024 couldn’t end soon enough. He had started the season bursting with optimism, shouldering a new responsibility on his return to Mumbai Indians (MI) from Gujarat Titans (GT), who he had led in the first two years of the franchise’s existence. In their maiden campaign in 2022, Pandya took a young GT outfit all the way to the title, then had the mortification of watching Ravindra Jadeja snatch a last-ball victory for Chennai Super Kings in the final of the 2023 season.

Booed for taking Rohit’s ‘seat’

Pandya’s move back to MI owed itself to many reasons, cricketing and commercial/brand/marketing, but both the manner and the timing of Rohit Sharma’s deposal didn’t sit well with the millions of fans of the Indian captain. In eight seasons between 2013 and 2020, Rohit had steered MI to five crowns – the most by any captain alongside Mahendra Singh Dhoni – and just played a stellar role in India’s march to the final of the 50-over home World Cup. How could they? How could he? That was the refrain of the fans. ‘They’ referred to the franchise which decided to move on from the Rohit leadership era. ‘He’ obviously was Pandya, deemed the villain of the piece for daring to aspire for the throne occupied by the benevolent incumbent.

Pandya was roundly booed wherever he played, including in Ahmedabad, the home of GT, and at the Wankhede Stadium, MI’s erstwhile bastion. Everything he touched ended in ruin – bowling changes, batting shake-ups, his decision to bowl himself either with the new ball or an older one, to bat higher up or lower down the order. As Pandya stumbled from one personal failure to another, MI courted embarrassing defeats by the bushel, managing just four wins in 14 outings in their worst year in history.

No visible signs of acrimony

By themselves, those developments were disturbing. Viewed against the larger context – the T20 World Cup was imminent – how would that impact India’s fortunes? What would the equation be between the captain (Rohit) and his deputy (Pandya) at the flagship 20-over event? Would the bitter aftertaste of the MI fiasco scuttle India’s chances?

Those were reasonable but eventually ill-founded fears. There is little outward indication of any bad blood between Rohit and Pandya, no sign that they are not comfortable with each other or in their own individual skins.

Pandya is a massive figure in this Indian set-up. His availability opens up so many different vistas – India can play an additional batter, pacer, or spinner, depending on what the conditions dictate, because Pandya is three cricketers rolled in one. He is a bruising, destructive ball-striker, at least a three-over bowler with the smarts and the skills to be a wicket-taker, and an outstanding fielder in the infield and the country. He is also one of those rare all-rounders in the Indian ecosystem who can bowl seam-up. Without being in the same league as the peerless Kapil Dev, he is the closest India have got as an answer to the great all-rounder who retired in 1994.

Why Pandya needed a good restart

For his own sake, Pandya needed to begin the T20 World Cup well. The pitches in New York didn’t allow him to flex his batting muscles – India only needed him against Pakistan – but they encouraged him to find bowling rhythm. Pandya is one of those bowlers who needs miles in the legs to get better. But while his bowling is crucial to India’s designs, it is in his status as a later-order finisher that India require Pandya more.

Having embraced the conservative for a long time, India have finally woken up to the demands of modern-day T20 batting. The onus has therefore shifted from big individual contributions to meaningful ones; a 15-ball 35 is accorded greater significance than a 55-ball 80, let’s say, if it’s the former that the situation demands. That’s why batters are happy to keep taking risks, to keep going hard at the bowling, to keep teeing off even when wickets fall. That, and the security that with Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja in the XI, India bat with ferocity until No. 8.

Pandya usually comes in at No. 5 or 6, the bridge between the two halves of the batting order. When he is in command, his bat comes down like an extension of his powerful arms, cutting a scything arc through the air as it meets the ball optimally and sends it soaring towards the sightscreen. He is as clean a striker of the cricket ball as any that has played the game, and he is gifted with the ability to change the course of a contest in the space of an over, maybe 10 deliveries.

Back to form

The first signs that Pandya’s batting was in good health came in Bridgetown on Thursday, during India’s Super Eight opener against Afghanistan. Their innings hadn’t really taken off when Pandya engaged in a game-altering 60-run fifth-wicket alliance with Shivam Dube. It took India to 181 when 160 appeared more likely, more realistic. Afghanistan simply didn’t have the resources to scale down that giant tally.

On a better batting strip at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound on Saturday, India’s frenetic pace of scoring was only matched by the rapidity with which wickets tumbled. Tanzim Hasan, the Bangladesh pacer, dismissed Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav in the space of three deliveries and when Pandya strode out at No. 6, India were 108 for four with 50 deliveries remaining. How would the finisher fare?

Quite outstandingly, thank you. His confidence and swagger back after the 24-ball 32 against Afghanistan, Pandya sent Bangladesh on a hiding to nothing. Within no time, he was flat-batting off-spinner Mahedi Hasan for six and drilling him through covers for four; the boundaries kept coming, some with delectable nonchalance, others with an uninhibited display of power. It wasn’t until the last ball of the innings that he brought up his half-century, off 27 deliveries with four fours and three giant sixes. During Pandya’s stay at the crease, India amassed 88 in just over eight overs; he alone made 50 of them, the Pandya of old resurfacing with a vengeance.

When Pandya bats well, it reflects in his bowling too. It was he who packed off Litton Das, an acknowledged Indophile, to send Rohit on a Tarzan-like victory cry as he rushed to celebrate his deputy’s success. Trouble in paradise? What trouble, you say? Indeed.