Hardik Pandya is an exuberant guy and wants to do well: Paras Mhambrey

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya is surely someone who is earmarked to achieve great success. This may seem to be an overstatement for some but he definitely has shown the spark and hunger to do well. He loves attention, fame and was to be flamboyant like the Caribbean cricketers. These things make him look like a complete wannabe. But, what matters is his on-field performances. And, if we look into his cricketing ability, they surely are extraordinary. At present three seems to be no better seam bowling all-rounder than him in the country.

After making it into the Indian team earlier this year, Pandya’s career went on a slightly downwards. He began squandering his chance and gave a couple of unsatisfactory performances which saw him lose his place in the national team. But, he learnt important lessons from this short stint and came back stronger to earn his maiden ODI call for the New Zealand series. It was time to celebrate for him and, he celebrated it by putting up a Man of the match performance in the opening ODI against New Zealand. The 23-year-old from Baroda went on to pick up three wickets in his seven overs giving away 31 runs.

An exclusive interview with India A bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey, was carried out by the Times of India on Monday. Mhambrey said that Pandya was working hard during the India A’s tour in Australia. He explained about how the all-rounder focused on channelizing his energy and bowl consistently.

“Pandya was in the limelight. And all of a sudden he wasn’t there. He needed to find answers on where he was wrong, the areas he had to improve to make a comeback and sustain it. He is an exuberant guy and wants to do well. At times you can get carried away because of that as a bowler. We worked more on the mental aspect of the game than on the technical side.”

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Dravid played a vital role in Pandya’s growth

Mhambrey also mentioned that India A coach Rahul Dravid played a vital role in Pandya’s re-emergence. The coach says that Dravid is the reason behind Pandya’s more matured approach. He said, “Rahul spoke a lot to him on his batting and he was impressed with Pandya’s abilities.

“With regards to his bowling, we asked him to hit the areas where he could set up batsmen. If you are able to do that consistently , then you are giving yourself an opportunity to get wickets. We spoke about being disciplined with his bowling. And we challenged him to bowl consistently on the three-quarter lengths in Australia as there is little room for error. I’m very happy that whatever he has worked on has helped him and he has made a strong comeback.”

Mhambrey felt that Pandya had realised the importance of fitness in order to improve as a bowler. The all-rounder was frequently clocking around 140kph during the first ODI.

Also, read – Hardik Pandya can swing the ball on wickets where others can’t: MS Dhoni

Mhambrey went on to say, “He is aware that his workload is only going to increase as he falls into the all-rounder category. If he has to be up there as an all-rounder, then has to be fit. That’s something he has really worked on with the trainer. His self-realization on the importance of fitness has helped him immensely.”