Hardik Pandya is on the cloud nine currently with his professional career resurging: after being sidelined for more than four months from all forms of the game to work on his fitness, Pandya, leading for the first time in the IPL, marched the Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 title, delivering with both bat and ball.
And now, the Baroda all-rounder is back in India’s T20I side for the first time after the T20 World Cup last year.
Following his terrific IPL 2022 campaign, where he earned praises of everyone for his individual play and for his captaincy, Pandya recalled how MS Dhoni had given him confidence when he was early into his India career.
Hardik Pandya Revealed How Dhoni Gave Him the Confidence
Following a breakthrough IPL 2022 season for Mumbai Indians, Pandya made his T20I debut in January 2016 in the series in Australia. Even though he didn’t get to bat in any of the three games in his debut series, and picked 3 wickets while being on the expensive side, MS Dhoni assured him that he will play for India at the T20 World Cup later that year.
“Just after the third game of my international career, Mahi bhai told me you will be the World Cup team. So for me, to play World Cup or to get to know that in the third game I just got to know about this. I did not even bat in that game but he assured me that you have expressed yourself. Yeah, it was just a dream come true,” Hardik Pandya told SGTV podcast.
Hardik Pandya was out of sorts in his first over in international cricket: starting off with three wides, following up with two more, and then clobbered for a six, Pandya leaked 17 runs in his first over. Dhoni, though, kept faith in the seamer and Hardik bounced back with two wickets in two balls.
Recalling his debut, the 28-year-old said, “When I joined the Indian team, I saw guys whom I had seen growing up – Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Ashish Nehra. Even before I played for India, they were the stars. For me, when I went there it was a big thing. So obviously the kind of debut I had – I think I am the first cricketer who had gone for 21 runs in his first over – I genuinely felt that ok, this might be my last over. But I was very blessed and lucky to play under Mahi bhai who showed lot of trust in us which has helped us reach where we did.”
