In past few months, the Indian Cricket Team has got a player who could threaten the opponent batsmen with his bowling and the same time, has the capability to hit humongous sixes that too consecutively. He is Hardik Pandya and he is one of the fastest growing young talents of team India. I won’t say much in his introduction but would like you to take a few days back – June 18, 2017, Champions Trophy Final. Who could forget that blissful knock from this young cricketer? Though we lost the game by a really big margin, however, Pandya played a memorable inning.
And now when he is playing against the West Indies on their home soil, the 22-year-old dynamic cricketer wishes to finish the games at times and wants to take the responsibility of being a finisher. According to a report by Sportskeeda.com, Pandya said,”I feel that one should be brave enough to do anything. I back my game, myself, and see the situation and I like to play accordingly. I don’t count myself as a one-dimensional player. I feel that I should see the scoreboard and then play accordingly. That’s how I’m going to learn cricket and that’s how I’m going to make sure that I finish the games.”
I believe I can fly! @hardikpandya7 #WIvIND pic.twitter.com/fc1tqVjD59
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 1, 2017
“People know me for the sixes but I’ve played those (hard-working) innings as well. Throughout my life, I’ve batted at a number where I can just go out and hit right from the first ball. In the last game, the situation required me to play for singles, which I was doing. Unfortunately, I got out but my plan was always that I should finish the game, take the game deep,” added Pandya.
Now at this point when Pandya wishes to play the finisher’s role and gradually he is becoming one, the question arises, would Hardik Pandya replace Mahendra Singh Dhoni as a perfect finisher of all the times?
If we turn the pages of backwards we will find that MS Dhoni has probably lost the skills for which he is known as the best finisher of the world. That winning six against Sri Lanka in World Cup 2011 is one of those moments when he justified his character but that incident is now an old one. In current conditions, Dhoni failed many times to provide the final touch and Indian lost the game.
Whether be it the first India vs West Indies T20 played in Florida in 2016 or last India vs West Indies 4th ODI of the ongoing bilateral series played in Antigua, MS Dhoni took the game until the end but failed to finish the game as he used to do once. He scored 54 off 114 balls and got out in the second last over and the rest is history now. On the other hand, Pandya played an inning of 20 off 21 balls before he lost his wicket to Jason Holder.
The point is MS Dhoni’s quality to finish a game is somewhere vanishing at a rapid speed. In such a case, Hardik Pandya could be his successor in the coming time. And keeping the 2019 World up in mind, team India needs a finisher to reply upon. Pandya is totally capable of going after the bowling right from the first ball and also, he could play a game till its result.
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