India’s stylish all-rounder Hardik Pandya has emerged as one of the cleanest hitters of the cricket ball, in the last 12 months or so. Pandya came to limelight in his first Indian Premier League (IPL) season for Mumbai Indians, in which he played a couple of brilliant match-winnings knocks and became an instant hit among the massive army of Mumbai Indians fans.
Hardik Pandya is a very flamboyant cricketer. He is very popular among Indian cricket fans because of his colourful style, aggressive stroke play and super fit body.
In the first match of the ongoing ODI series between India and Australia, Hardik Pandya added a unique feat to his name– he has hit three consecutive sixes four times in international cricket this year.
In the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, Pandya smashed 3 consecutive sixes twice against Pakistan.
- In the opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, he launched Imad Wasim for three back-to-back sixes.
- He repeated the feat in the tournament’s final too, smashing Shadab Khan for three consecutive maximums.
- Then, Hardik Pandya hammered Sri Lanka’s Malinda Pushpakumara for three sixes on the trot, during the Pallekele Test.
And, recently, he did against Australia in the first ODI at Chepauk stadium in Chennai. Hardik smashed 3 back-to-back towering sixes off Adam Zampa. Pandya came in to bat at number 6 when India were in a spot of bother after losing 4 quick wickets. He formed a brilliant match-winning partnership with MS Dhoni and displayed outstanding counter-attacking batting against a good Australian bowling attack.
You can see in the tweet shared below that Hardik Pandya is among the top batsmen who have most hat-tricks of sixes in ODIs since 2000. Pandya has done it thrice in just 4 months and it’s a big achievement for him to be in the company of legendary batsmen like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Sanath Jayasuriya.
NOTE: This list includes only ODI matches. Pandya has done it once in Test cricket, too.
Most hat-tricks of sixes in ODIs since 2000
4 AB de Villiers
3 Chris Gayle
3 Sanath Jayasuriya
3 Hardik Pandya (in space of just 4 months)— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) September 17, 2017
