India’s star all-rounder Hardik Pandya produced an innings for the ages as he led the Indian cricket team to a stellar victory against arch-rivals Pakistan in the team’s tournament opener in Asia Cup 2022 in Dubai on Sunday. Coming in to bat in a tricky situation, Hardik Pandya put India’s chase back on track along with Ravindra Jadeja.
Both the cricketers formed a partnership of 52 runs for the fifth wicket and took the game by storm. Hardik Pandya played a match-winning knock of 33* runs off 17 balls to help the Indian cricket team win the contest by five wickets. His stellar knock was laced with 4 fours and a stunning six.
In fact, Hardik Pandya was superb with the ball against Pakistan in the first innings. He opened his account by dismissing Ifthikhar Ahmed who was looking to steady the ship with a solid 45-run partnership with Mohammad Rizwan. He then picked the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan, followed by Khushdil Shah.
In what could be termed as the ‘greatest comeback ever’, Hardik has set the perfect example of how to turn setbacks into epic comebacks. For the unversed, Pandya was stunned by a back injury in 2019 and suffered heavily due to that for two years post-surgery. While he recovered enough to get back to cricketing action, he was struggling to contribute with the ball. But Hardik Pandya has been in some stellar form ever since his return to the Indian side.
Meanwhile, after the amazing win against Pakistan last night, Hardik took to his social media and shared a heartfelt tweet about his comeback. He wrote:
“The comeback is greater than the setback 
”
Check out the Tweet:
The comeback is greater than the setback
pic.twitter.com/KlnD4GZ4ZO
— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) August 29, 2022
Ahead of the IND vs PAK last night, Hardik Pandya in interaction with Star Sports heaped praise on the team management for showing respect towards him. He had said:
“I have been in and out of the team, but to see the respect and value they have given me is incredible. The kind of mindset we are coming from, the players are much more relaxed. They don’t want to feel the pressure of playing for India, they just want to express themselves. Credit to the management for making this team much more secure than any team I have ever played with in the past,”
He added: “I have been in and out of the team, but to see the respect and value they have given me is incredible. The kind of mindset we are coming from, the players are much more relaxed. They don’t want to feel the pressure of playing for India, they just want to express themselves. Credit to the management for making this team much more secure than any team I have ever played with in the past,”
