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Hardik Pandya's dust-or-cry act during India national anthem triggers rib-tickling reactions
Twitter claimed that it was dust that Hardik Pandya was wiping off his eyes, while others felt he was overwhelmed due to the National Anthem.
As the two teams lined up for the respective national anthems after West Indies opted to bat by winning the toss, there was a moment involving Hardik Pandya. The captain leading India's T20I team was reportedly caught in an emotional moment as visuals of him wiping his eyes took the internet by storm. It is natural for an India captain to get carried away – it's a moment that can send chills down any Indian's spine, let alone a captain of the Indian cricket team. However, whether it was truly a tear Hardik was rubbing off or something else has been debated heavily on social media.
This isn't the first instance of an India captain getting overwhelmed by the national anthem. During last year's T20 World Cup when India took on Pakistan in their World Cup opener, the occasion got the better of captain Rohit Sharma as his expressions clearly stated. However, in this case, something was different. Some people on Twitter claimed that it was instead dust that Hardik was getting rid of, while others came up with rather hilarious takes. Below are some of the reactions.
Hardik was also criticised after the game for his post-match comments. India lost the opening T20I contest by 4 runs as they failed to chase down the 150-run target set by West Indies. And although India came close courtesy a fine knock from debutant Tilak Varma, they couldn't get the job done. Tilak's 39 off 22 balls was the highlight of India's batting, which saw the likes of Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav and captain Hardik return disappointing figures with the bat. As India continue to carry their experiments, Hardik with a smile on his face, said he doesn't mind the outcome as long as the youngsters continue to learn from defeats. Hardik's 'casual' demeanour was slammed by the public with some believing he wasn't deserving of India's captaincy.
"We were right in the chase and quite comfortable there. We made some errors which costed us the game which is fine. A young team will make mistakes. We will grow together. Throughout the game, we were in control of the game which was the positive in this game," he said.
India's experiments continue
Speaking of experiments, while there wasn't much complaints with the bowling, the batting came under the scanner. First, Hardik promoted himself ahead of Sanju Samson, and even with 37 needed off 30 with 6 wickets left, failed ton close out the match. Secondly, without Shardul Thakur, India's lower-order was the weakest it looked in a long time, with Axar Patel at 7 being the last recognised batter. In a day and age when every team is going big on tail, India's last four batters were Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh, whose batting averages, even combined, cuts a pretty underwhelming number.
"We would like to give opportunities to the two wristies (Kuldeep and Chahal) to play together. Axar adds a very good component in his batting as well. We felt that was the right combination. Mukesh (Kumar) - to have this two weeks which he has had in West Indies - where he made debuts in all three formats is really good," Hardik pointed out.
