"Gamble Paid Off Massively": Sanjay Manjrekar Lauds Hardik Pandya's Recent Performance

Indian cricket is going through a crucial phase. The Tour of England is starting in a few days time while the T20 World Cup is only a few months away. The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 also saw several players hitting top form like Hardik Pandya. Former Indian cricket team player Sanjay Manjrekar, in an exclusive interview with NDTV, talked one various relevant topics in Indian cricket.

Q: Hardik Pandya is leading the team for the first time. Your assessment of Pandya as a captain and do you think that we will see him more often now, leading Team India in the white ball format?

Sanjay: I was actually amazed by the performance of Hardik Pandya- the captain and the all-rounder as well. Before the IPL if you remember, the couple of years that he had with Mumbai Indians, there was the fitness issue, he wasn't bowling at all for Mumbai Indians; his batting was a bit scratchy, hardly played any International cricket. So it was a huge gamble for Gujarat Titans to have him as one of the marquee players, plus given the captaincy. He had no track record as captain. But that gamble paid off massively. The fact that he looked like he was enjoying captaincy, he was so happy, relaxed. We saw Mayank Agarwal being a little too intense, so I guess that is one real positive. This is a guy in a high pressure league like IPL, where the stakes are high, yet so relaxed in the crunch moments.

Q: What about Hardik the player? Do you think looking at him now he's back in full fitness, he is ready to you know go the distance when it comes to bowling as well?

Sanjay: I think that question mark will always remain about his bowling. In the last game, for India, he didn't bowl at all, they bowled him a little in the early part of the series