All-Rounder Hardik Pandya credits cool “MS Dhoni” for career growth: Flamboyant Hardik Pandya has been in limelight for all the right reasons this time and the all-rounder credits legendary Indian captain, MS Dhoni, for growth in his career. He recently told that Dhoni has played an important role in his career.
As they say, your comeback should be louder than the setback, Hardik Pandya has proved it right by performing consistently after his comeback. He received a snub from the Indian team following his poor outing in the T20 World Cup 2021. He made himself unavailable for Indian selection and devoted his time to achieving prime fitness.
He made a comeback in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 as the captain of Gujarat Titans and helped his side win its maiden title. While many doubted Pandya’s abilities as the captain of the side, he proved all of them wrong with his actions. Moreover, Hardik also scored crucial runs for Gujarat Titans.
He amassed 487 runs at an average of 44.27 in 15 games. To add more to this, he scalped eight wickets in the tournament including 3-fer in the final.
Now, Hardik has recently aided team India to trump Pakistan. He won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his brilliant unbeaten knock of 33 runs and picked three wickets in the first innings.
“I was just a new kid trying to learn new things about life and sport. MS Dhoni has played a big role in my growth. Whenever I got an opportunity, I used to observe him and learn things. The kind of mindset and knowledge he had, just observing it, it has reflected in my personality on the field,” said Pandya on Star Sports.
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Hardik added that responsibility on his shoulders made things more personal and things started changing when it gets personal.
“It was about owning my mistakes, taking my chances, failing and learning from them. Sometimes, it is failures that teaches you, not your closest confide, not your aid and to a good extent even Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni). Some failures, you just experience and you learn from them,” he added.
The dashing all-rounder pins the last four years of his life as life-changing. From getting recognition in the Indian team to getting dropped and criticised and making a strong comeback, Hardik saw it all.
Hardik, who will be turning 29 in October this year, believes that finishing any task is the most important thing and in cricket, if a team can’t finish games, the job is incomplete.
“You might go to a restaurant, the food could be amazing but if there is no finishing touch, it does not add the charm to the dish no matter how it tastes. The look of it matters. It is similar in the game, no matter how close you come, how well-poised you are, how strong you are, when you do not get finishing touches from your lower order or finisher, it does not look complete,” he said.