‘Thought my career was over’ – Hardik Pandya reminisces his debut for India in 2016

Hardik Pandya came into the Indian team after some impressive performances for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 2015 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He made his debut in a T20I back in January 2016 against a power-packed Australian team at the Adelaide Oval. He came to bowl when the home team was hammering along at 63 for one after seven overs.

In his first over, Hardik bowled three wides and Aaron Finch and Steve Smith also picked up a couple of fours. He conceded 19 in that over and was taken out of the attack. He was brought back in the 15th over and Chris Lynn greeted him with a colossal blow over long-on.

I thought I was done: Hardik Pandya

After the first eight balls of his career, Hardik was dejected to the extent that he thought that his career was over. “I conceded 26 runs from my first 8 balls and frankly thought my career was over,” Pandya was quoted as saying to Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz.

However, Pandya did make amends as he got rid of Lynn in the last ball of his second over. To add to his delight, he pinned Matthew Wade in the very first ball of his next over, placing himself on the verge of a hat-trick on debut.

“When I was hit for a huge six, almost 105-110m, I thought I was done. I felt it couldn’t get worse than this and thankfully I managed to snare a couple of wickets,” the 26-year-old stated.

In the end, in three overs, Pandya gave away 37 runs, picking up Lynn and Wade’s wicket. India were defending 188 and they managed to win by 37 runs, bowling Finch’s men out for 151 in 19.3 overs. Later that year, he went on to get his maiden ODI cap against New Zealand as well.

In July 2017, Pandya forayed into Test cricket and notched a century in his very first series against Sri Lanka. Currently, in 11 Tests, 54 ODIs and 40 T20Is, the Baroda cricketer has 532, 957 and 310 runs respectively. He also has a combined tally of 109 wickets at the highest level.