'He has spent a lot of time with MS Dhoni & Virat Kohli, but Hardik Pandya has his own brand of captaincy, he has reinvented himself': Saba Karim

With a few of the big guns rested, the man chosen to lead the 17-man Indian squad for this tour is Hardik Pandya, who till just a short while back was struggling to bowl, wasn't really effective with the bat and was then on the sidelines, with nagging lower back issues. It's something that has plagued him for a long time. He underwent back surgery in London in 2019, before the injury came back to haunt him again. Which is why in IPL 2022, when the Gujarat Titans named him as their captain after bringing him onboard as a pre-auction signing, there were more than a few raised eyebrows. How effective would Hardik be in shouldering the responsibilities of captaincy? Was it the right call to name him captain of a debutant IPL team, which would be looking to make a mark in their maiden season? Would he be able to bowl? Hardik had an answer for each of those questions and more. What we saw in IPL 2022 was Hardik 2.0. A calmer, more focused version of the very talented all-rounder, who took to captaincy like a fish to water.

Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI/IPL)He bowled, he was the leading run getter for the Gujarat Titans and marshalled his troops so well that the Titans finished the season as the champions. Former India cricketer Saba Karim, who has also been the BCCI General Manager of Cricket Operations and a national selector was a guest on the Times of India's sports podcast Sportscast recently and talked about the changes he has seen in Hardik and what impressed him about the all-rounder and now India captain. “I think what I have noticed in Hardik Pandya are the learnings that he has absorbed by being an international cricketer over the last 4-5 years. If I remember correctly, he made his debut in 2015-16 (January