Impressed by the way Hardik Pandya marched the Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 title, former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has even gone on to make a bold statement, saying that the Baroda all-rounder could lead the Indian team in the future.
Despite very little experience of captaincy in junior levels, and none in the IPL, Pandya was trusted by the Titans to lead the side in their debut IPL season. The 28-year-old surprised everyone by taking the franchise to their maiden IPL title in their debut season itself.
The all-rounder led from the front with both bat and ball, and showed great form and fitness, an aspect of his game which had been under a big cloud before the tournament. Promoting himself to number 3 and 4, Pandya finished as his side’s highest score with 487 runs at an average of 44 along with 4 half-centuries.
With the ball, he picked up 8 wickets in the season, and stepped up big time in the final versus Rajasthan Royals with figures of 3/17 – wickets of Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer – tilting the game largely in Gujarat’s favour.
Hardik can lead Team India in the future: Harbhajan
Harbhajan Singh was effusive in praise while speaking about Pandya’s spectacular IPL season as a player and GT’s leader, saying he was amongst the “biggest revelations” this season.
‘Bhajji’ even went on to opine that Hardik has the ingredients for being India’s future captain.
“One of the biggest revelations in this year’s IPL was the advent of Hardik Pandya as the skipper of the Gujarat Titans and the way he led the team from the front to win the coveted title is definitely praiseworthy,” Harbhajan told PTI in an interview.
“His intent and positive captaincy are signs that he can lead Team India in the future,” he added.
After his immense success in the IPL 2022, Hardik made his return to the India side for the South Africa T20Is. He shone brightly with the bat with a fiery knock of 31* runs off 12 balls but conceded 18 runs in his only over as India failed to defend 211.
