Indian captain Virat Kohli revealed that the decision to send Hardik Pandya ahead of MS Dhoni, in India’s opening match of ICC Champions Trophy 2017 against Pakistan, was a last-minute one. Kohli said that Pandya’s ability to strike big sixes right from the first ball prompted this decision.
In the last so many years, MS Dhoni has been India’s go-to man for finishing matches. But, as he is nearing the last phase of international career, he doesn’t posses the same power and needs some deliveries at the start of his innings before he gets going.
After the fall of Yuvraj Singh’s wicket, India still had 10 balls left. But, instead of MS Dhoni, who mostly bats at number 5, all-rounder Hardik Pandya came out to bat and scored 20 runs off just 6 deliveries. Speaking about Hardik Pandya’s promotion at the post-match press conference, Kohli said:
“It was unbelievable the way he came out. We switched in the end, they asked whether we should send Hardik ahead of MS and everyone agreed because he can just strike the ball from ball one, unbelievable ability so I think those three sixes and a boundary was probably a little bit of difference as well in the end.”
After his brilliant unbeaten innings of 80 runs in the warmup match against Bangladesh, Pandya was given the opportunity to bat ahead of MS Dhoni and finish the innings for India. And, to his credit, he batted exactly the way his captain would have wanted him to. He played just six balls and scored 20 runs. In the last over of the match, Pandya smashed 3 huge sixes and gave the perfect end to Indian innings.
Now, it will be interesting to see how Kohli uses him in the rest of the matches. Will he bat ahead of MS Dhoni or was it just a one-time decision?
