The plan was to target the spinner and it worked: Hardik Pandya

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya has revealed that his promotion at number 4 was the plan to target the lone spinner in opposition line-up. India sealed the 5-match series by winning three games on the trot in Indore itself and are now aiming to whitewash the visitors. Chasing a hefty total of 294, the management promoted Pandya with more than half runs yet to get and it worked wonders for the team as he played the team with a match-winning knock.

Australia was taken by surprise when Pandya walked in after the fall of first two wickets as they were expecting a struggling Manish Pandey to come in. It seemed they had no plans for the swashbuckling all-rounder as he kept hitting his shots off the left-arm spinner Ashton Agar. Earlier, the visitors got off to a great start courtesy a brilliant century from Aaron Finch who returned to the side. But the dearth of runs in the death overs due to a familiar Australian collapse restricted them to 293 only which once looked like 350.

I saw this as an opportunity

Virat Kohli cleared during the post-match presentation that the idea of sending Pandya was of the head coach Ravi Shastri. The experiment worked wonders for the Men in Blue as he scored a magnificent 78 off 72 balls and guided his team to a famous win. “The message was always simple. Play your game, however, you play. It depends, I can play all kinds of innings. Obviously, the plan was to target the spinners and it came out pretty well,” Hardik said.

However, his promotion to number 4 seems to be one-off and could not be termed as the permanent solution for India’s only weak link in the current ODI set-up. But the youngster was happy with the opportunity presented. “It does not make any difference where I bat. Rather than seeing this as a challenge, I see this as an opportunity to do something nice for the team. When I was told I was going to go out to bat next, I was happy. This is the first time I played so many balls, so it was great,” Baroda lad added.

He also mentioned that he has the confidence in whatever he does. But it was important for him to read the game which he has been doing very well off-late. “I just back myself… and in cricket, the confidence always matters and I’m confident that I can clear the ground. It’s not just about hitting. It’s pretty important that I read the game. That time I thought that (Adam) Zampa was bowling and I knew that I could hit a six off him anytime I wanted to. That’s why I waited till the seventh over and then I got the opportunity to change the momentum and eventually one over changed the momentum in that game (In Chennai ODI),” he continued.

Ben Stokes of India?

However, time will only tell how the story of Pandya unfolds but he has filled the void of a seam-bowling all-rounder and looks a completely different cricketer from last year. He is improving leaps and bounds and the fans would hope he could become the Ben Stokes of India. He claimed that he doesn’t think much about the future and focus on what he has been doing at the current moment.

“I don’t think that much. I focus only on the things which I can focus and right now I’m just playing my cricket. I just back myself and if you back yourself, you always come out on top. I mean you can’t score every day but yeah, backing yourself is pretty important,” Hardik Pandya concluded as usual in a confident manner.