Hardik has emerged as the most promising talent of India since making his debut last year. Hardik Pandya has the potential to be a great all-rounder and Virat Kohli sees him as young prodigy who is ready to take his development to the next level. He has the great potential to be a great all-rounder in the upcoming years but is his place in the current squad affecting the overall balance? Indian Captain Virat Kohli has backed Pandya- the 23-year-old all-rounder, to showcase his credentials as the future perfectionist of Indian cricket with another swashbuckling display against Sri Lanka in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017.
Having played a vital role in Mumbai Indians’ IPL victory
earlier this year, underscored his rapid appearance by making a bright start to
his country’s Champions Trophy campaign. His boisterous, active personality and
fun-living lifestyle has irked some of the more conservative figures in Indian
cricket. He has shown great improvement with the bat as well, and has shown
signs of being able to not only hit the giant shots in the end in order to win
the match but also construct innings and finish games for India. In Cricket World, there is a
universal belief that an all-rounder must be able to hold his place as a
batsman in a side or as a bowler.
The likes of Ben Stokes, Jacques Kallis, Andrew Flintoff,
Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock and even Sanath Jayasuriya were/are well-known
world class all-rounders who had a core skill and supplemented it with their
secondary skill. With Hardik Pandya, we are not yet quite sure whether he is a
bowling all-rounder or batting all-rounder. He at the start played as a number
7 batsmen and 3rd seamer. However in the ICC Champions Trophy-2017, he has been
picked as the Fourth seamer, and India council have chosen to sacrifice the 2nd
spinner. India from the beginning have always been obsessed and passionate with
a fast bowling all-rounder.
In the last 15 – 20 years they’ve had Irfan Pathan,
Stuart Binny and Joginder Sharma, none of who have managed to make the position
their own. Irfan Pathan showed a lot of promise but his bowling has gone
downhill over the years because of low practice as all-rounder, with both pace
and swing now longer prominent. Hardik Pandya first take the limelight and emerged
on the scene in the 2015 IPL match. He established himself as the fast bowling,
big hitting all-rounder. However, his presence in the squad currently is
affecting the balance of the talented squad. India currently does not have a
quality 6th bowler that they had in the form of younger Yuvraj Singh or a Suresh
Raina.
The current
Indian bowling lineup is expected to bowl their part of 10 overs each, however,
with Hardik Pandya being unable to bowl his quota or finish his over, and if
another frontline bowler goes for runs, then there is tremendous pressure on
Indian Captain Virat Kohli to use his part-time bowlers (who are also currently
under par) to step in. The game against Sri Lankan team was a great example of
the front line bowlers not being able to stop the continuous flow of runs as a
result of which Sri Lankan Team managed to chase down the target fairly easily.
Well, India need to re-assess their balance for the upcoming games. Overall,
Hardik Pandya has great potential and could eventually develop into an
all-rounder for India.
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