Hardik Pandya on Tuesday added another trophy to his cabinet as India won the 3-match T20I series against New Zealand 1-0. The third and the final face-off yielded no result due to a rain interruption and hence, India swept away the series. This was the third tournament victory for Pandya in 2022. His rise as a successful skipper began with IPL 2022 and then reached New Zealand via Ireland.
Hardik has been a cool customer on the field and his demeanour under pressure has often been a point of discussion. But at the same time, he is also in favour of the firecracker brand of cricket, a strategy that Team India has been following lately.
India vs New Zealand, 3rd T20I, Napier – Highlights
After the conclusion of the third T20I in Napier, Hardik addressed a post-match presser in which he was asked if his philosophy, as a captain, is the same, i.e., start hitting right from the beginning. In reply, the stand-in Indian captain said,
“To be honest, I have tried my best to give freedom to my player so that he can go out and express himself. Whosoever has come here to play international cricket, he have had played many games before. So, the same ideology was there in the World Cup. Obviously, things we couldn’t implement are getting highlighted. But going forward, we won’t play with a single mindset. The mandate would be to go, enjoy, and if you feel like hitting right from the first ball, just hit. The player will have the full support and will be backed thoroughly,” he added.
Ahead of the third T20I, there were speculations that India might give a chance to Sanju Samson and Umran Malik. However, the only change made to the playing was Washington Sundar getting replaced by Harshal Patel.
Addressing the same issue, Pandya said every player will get a fair amount of chance in the coming days.
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“Firstly, what is being spoken outside doesn’t matter to us. This is my team, what me and the coach feel right, we’ll go by that. Everyone gets a chance, gets a poor one. Aur jab milega tab lamba mauka milega (Everyone will get a fair amount of chance and when it happens, that particular player will be trusted thoroughly),” he added.
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