Hardik Pandya's all-round show helps India to beat arch-rivals Pakistan
Updated On: 29 August, 2022 07:35 AM IST | Dubai | R Kaushik
All-rounder Hardik claims three crucial wickets as India dismiss arch-rivals Pakistan for 147 in 19.5 overs; swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar is top wicket-taker of the innings with 4-26
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Hardik Pandya celebrates the wicket of Pakistan’s Iftikhar Ahmed with teammates at Dubai yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
Some three years back, there were huge question marks over Hardik Pandya’s future. The star all-rounder-in-the-making had just gone under the surgeon’s knife in October 2019 to fix a lower back problem, and there were inevitable and justified doubts about when, if not whether, he would make a full-fledged return as the impact cricketer he had been in the early stages of his international career.
His inability to bowl during the early part of the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year did influence India’s early exit from the tournament, which he played primarily as a specialist late-order finisher. But while the rest of the country fretted and fumed, the team management and his colleagues were willing to bide their time, confident that the Pandya of yore would resurface with his skills undiminished. After a successful stint with bat and ball for Gujarat Titans in Season 15 of the IPL, when he led the debutants to the title, Pandya’s graph has been on a steady upswing. He has been bowling with both hostility and control and, on the recent tour of the Caribbean and the USA, proclaimed that he could fill in as a third or fourth seamer who could send down his full quota of four overs.
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