Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya is an Indian cricketer who is considered as an all-rounder. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium fast bowler and represents Baroda in the Ranji Trophy and Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premiere League (IPL). He then created an impact in the IPL with an unbeaten 31 ball 61 for Mumbai Indians against Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2015 IPL. He is also known for taking 10 wickets for Baroda and helping the team to reach the finals. Due to such performance, he was selected in the international T20 match against Australia and later for the 2016 Twenty20 world cup. He made his international One Day International (ODI) debut against New Zealand in October 2016.

Born on 11^th October 1993, Pandya was born in Surat and has a brother Krunal Pandya who is also a cricketer. Hardik’s father Himanshu Pandya had a small business in Surat and the family had limited income. Both his sons Hardik and Krunal were interested in cricket from a very young age and had a great talent. After a friend’s suggestion to send his children to Vadodara where Kiran More ran a cricket academy, Himanshu decided to go to Vadodara. Kiran More first refused to coach them but later agreed to coach both the brothers. At that time Hardik was only five years old. Kiran More didn’t charge a single rupee for the first three years and his contribution is considered as one of the most important in making him a cricketer. Hardik wasn’t much interested in studies and he didn’t appear in the ninth standard examination and quit studies. He is just VIII pass. Meanwhile, he continued practicing hard so that he could fulfill his father’s dream who wanted his children to become a cricketer. His hard work gained success and he was selected in the Baroda team in the year 2013. In the 2013-14 season of the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy, his role was considered as one of the most important roles for the Baroda team.  In the first match of the tournament, the team played against Mumbai and struggled in their batting innings and was struggling at 20/2. The team wasn’t able to face the bowling strength of players like Zaheer Khan, Dhawal Kulkarni, and Pravin Tambe. However, after the team struggled, Hardik walked in to save the team and scored 82* out of 57 balls and helped Baroda to win the match. His innings impressed everyone, especially coach John Wright who was associated with Mumbai Indians think tank. He was impressed by his performance and also came back two days later to watch his performance against Gujarat. He once again impressed him by scoring 37 runs and taking three wickets in four overs. After such a performance, he was then bought by the Mumbai Indians in the 2015 IPL auction at the base price of Rs 10 Lakh. After being roped in by the Mumbai Indians team, he impressed all his teammates by his clean ball striking as well as his fielding. He scored 21 runs of 8 balls against Chennai Super Kings and helped his team in winning the match. Later on, he played an innings of 61 off 31 balls in the must win required by Mumbai Indians to survive in the tournament. He was awarded the second Man of the Match award. His skills impressed his teammates and players like Ricky Pointing praised him and Sachin Tendulkar called him over and told him that if he continues to perform similarly, he will be playing for the Indian cricket team in the next eighteen months. Apparently, he was selected for the 2016 Asia cup and later for the 2016 ICC World Twenty20. He made his international debut in T20 in January 2016 against Australia and took two wickets in the first match. Later in the Asia cup 2016, he played against Pakistan and to 3 wickets for 8 runs and restricted Pakistan to 83 runs. He is also remembered for the combined hat-trick he took in the Asia Cup. He took two wickets in the last two balls against Pakistan and in the next match playing against Sri Lanka he took the wicket of the first ball of his spell. In the ICC World Twenty20, Pandya is remembered for the unforgettable match against Bangladesh where he took two wickets in the last three balls and helped India in winning the match by one run. Apart from international cricket, Pandya continued his form in the domestic cricket as well and slammed eight sixes and scored 86 runs against Vidarbha in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and helped his team in winning the match. Later, he was selected in the ODI format against New Zealand. He made his debut on 16^th October 2016 and received his ODI cap from the legend Kapil Dev who made his debut in ODI cricket on 16^th October 1978. In his debut match, he took three wickets and helped India in winning the match. He was also awarded the Man of the Match award for his contribution. He became the fourth Indian to receive the man of the match award in the debut match after Sandeep Patil, Mohit Sharma and K.L. Rahul.

Hardik Pandya has been able to create a mark with the limited chances he has received in the international format. He is definitely considered as the future of Indian cricket. Pandya is also reported to be dating Lisha Sharma, a Jamshedpur-based model.