Not many had any information about Hardik Pandya the skipper, much like many expected the least from his side, Gujarat Titans. But both managed to stun the lot, with the magnificent Indian Premier League (IPL) title haul on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets to lift their maiden IPL trophy. And former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was immensely impressed with Hardik's captaincy and all-round show throughout the tournament. (Follow IPL 2022 full coverage)
Hardik's return as a all-rounder was the biggest question before the start of the tournament. He had not played a single cricket game since the 2021 T20 World Cup and there were bigger doubts surrounding his bowling.
But Hardik capped off a brilliant season as an all-rounder. He finished with 487 runs in the tournament at 44.27 and a strike rate of 131.26 while also picking eight wickets at an economy rate of 7.27. While he did not bowl through the second half of the season, he returned with his career-best 3 for 17 in the final that helped Gujarat in restricting Rajasthan to just 130 for nine.
“The selection committee will be delighted with the way he has come through. Everyone had seen him batting but nobody had seen him bowl. Now he is coming and bowling four overs sometimes or three overs on the trot which shows that he is 100 per cent fit. But yes he has got to be managed well. When you have a back injury as serious as that where you have a surgery, you got to be managed. But the fact that he is coming and bowling at over 140, which means he was letting it rip,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports after the final.
{{/usCountry}}“The selection committee will be delighted with the way he has come through. Everyone had seen him batting but nobody had seen him bowl. Now he is coming and bowling four overs sometimes or three overs on the trot which shows that he is 100 per cent fit. But yes he has got to be managed well. When you have a back injury as serious as that where you have a surgery, you got to be managed. But the fact that he is coming and bowling at over 140, which means he was letting it rip,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports after the final.
{{/usCountry}}The legendary batter was highly impressed with Hardik's shot selection and opined that just like Rohit Sharma, Hardik's performance as a batter improved with captaincy.
“Also the shot selection he showed as a batter. He wasn't throwing his bat at just about everything. It was absolutely terrific. In this game you tend to look for six and get out but generally with captaincy, just like it did with Rohit Sharma, the short selection became better. Rohit, too like Hardik was brilliant, but the moment he got the captaincy, he started scoring 70, 80, 100s as well,” he said.