IPL 2022: Time for Hardik Pandya 2.0

Hardik Pandya on television these days. “Jahan game on hai, wahan pohochna hai (you’ve got to reach wherever the game’s on).” A scrawny kid running after an autorickshaw, a motor van, to catch a train, running between the wickets, running in to bowl, running to his teammates in jubilation. Just running the distance. Running all the time. Until 2015, the year he made his Mumbai Indians debut, Pandya lived a life running against all odds. Between 2015 and last year, he ran with those very odds stacked in his favour. From here, he has to run to draw some semblance to the journey so far.

Hardik will turn 29 in October, that very month when the T20 World Cup in Australia gets underway. There’s no place in the world he’d rather be, bringing in his birthday, than Down Under, on a war footing in a format that he potentially owns. HARDIK THE BOWLERIn 2020, when the selectors were busy picking the squad for the white-ball series in Australia, Hardik wasn’t ready to bowl his quota of overs yet. Selectors, at least a couple of them, insisted that picking Hardik in the squad – when he isn’t bowling – couldn’t be justified. The team management, nevertheless, insisted. Even without the ball in hand, they said, Hardik was worth the trip Down Under. An unbeaten 92 off 76 balls in the third ODI in Canberra and a 22-ball 42 in the second T20 International in Sydney justified the backing.

Yet, it cannot be denied that with the ball in hand, bowling his full quota of overs, is what makes Hardik the quintessential white-ball cricketer. To make the upcoming trip to Australia this year, it’s this missing element he’ll have to add to his arsenal. THE MATCH-WINNERThe win-loss percentage in Hardik’s T20 career so far, be it India or Mumbai