Poor performance in IPL 2016, helped Hardik Pandya get back on track

India’s new found all round sensation, Hardik Pandya, in a recent interview, revealed that his string of poor performances in the 2016 edition of IPL, leading him to face the axe in the Indian squad, helped him get back on track.

Pandya was an integral part of India in the T20 World Cup of 2016 and preparatory series prior to it. But after a half decent show in the cash-rich league, Hardik was dropped from the Mumbai Indians squad midway into the tournament and also missed out on the Zimbabwe series.

“You can say that. When I was dropped from the team — I mean I only missed one series, against Zimbabwe — I had time to work really hard. I got the time and I thought I could work hard on a few aspects of my game and slowly things started changing,” claimed Hardik Pandya according to his interview with Sportstarlive.

On Six-hitting

Whenever Pandya takes a guard in the middle, a maximum is always round the corner these days. Pandya hit the likes of Imad Wasim, Adam Zampa, Milinda Pushpakumara for three consecutive sixes. Therefore, he was asked about his selection of balls to strike.

“I used to try hitting sixes since my U-16 days. I used to also get out while trying, but most of the times, I would clear the 30-yard circle and get boundaries if not sixes. I always used to like playing the big shots. I practised a lot. I always used to practise long-hitting — range hitting, as they say — and I used to enjoy it,” replied the Baroda all-rounder.

On idolizing Pathan brothers

In the detailed interview, he was then asked if he and his elder brother, Krunal Pandya, who is an integral part of Mumbai Indians and India ‘A’ set up, grew up idolising any famous sports siblings. To which he answered by taking the names of Irfan and Yusuf Pathan.

“Not really, but growing up in Vadodara, we had Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan playing together. I mean we used to think it’s so cool playing together and soon we also played together. We didn’t really aspire to play together, we were just enjoying our own cricket and trying to improve at it. We didn’t really want to copy any of the cricketers as such,” concluded Pandya.