India head coach Rahul Dravid said he is excited to have premier allrounder Hardik Pandya back in full fitness, including on the bowling front, for the five-match T20I series against South Africa. However, Dravid gave a hint, it is unlikely Pandya would not have a return to his usual end-overs aggressor duties in T20Is after batting higher up as skipper of Gujarat Titans in IPL 2022.
Opting to play a more wholesome role with the bat for Titans, Pandya batted No.3-4 for the new franchise and had one of his best Indian Premier League seasons. He topped the runs chart for Gujarat in their run to lift a maiden IPL title, scoring 487 runs at 44.27 with a healthy strike-rate of 131.26. Dropping anchor that could explode, Pandya struck four half-centuries.
Not only that, the 28-year-old made a return to bowling full tilt once again, clocking 135-140 kph consistently in the fifth-bowler’s duties. Pandya took eight wickets while going for only 7.27 an over. He peaked as a bowler in the final against the Rajasthan Royals, delivering a match-winning spell of 3 for 17 off his four overs, including the prized scalps of Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and Shimron Hetmyer.
Quite enthused by it, Dravid welcomed Pandya back with open arms after going missing from the T20I scene since the end of last year’s T20 World Cup in UAE. But he kept a check on India’s demands from the player and strongly suggested he would persist with Pandya in the powerhitter’s role down the order.
“Hardik is a fantastic cricketer with both bat and ball – we have seen that for India in the past obviously. He has been very successful in white-ball cricket and has shown some really good form in this IPL as well. So it’s very pleasing to have someone of that quality that we can choose from,”
Without giving too much away – I’m not going to be telling the batting order before the game starts – but in general, sometimes the role that you play for your franchise matches with the role that you play for India, but sometimes you have to play slightly different roles for different teams,”
Dravid told the press ahead of the opening T20I versus South Africa in Delhi, scheduled for June 8, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Dravid reasserted his position on switching roles from the IPL to T20Is for India, stating the team’s demands compel players to be flexible when they come into the Indian setup, although the coach is willing to provide certain players the same role as the one performed for their franchises if the opportunity presents.
Like Dinesh Karthik, who has forced his way back into the T20I side after playing an excellent 16-20 aggressor in the IPL, Dravid said, he will continue to be looked at as a player for that phase only even in the Indian side. But for most of the others, it’s about adjusting to the team’s demands.
“It’s not only about Hardik. For all the players, some of the roles they played for their IPL franchises might be slightly different to the roles that we are expecting here based on our team combination,”
he stressed.
He also responded to queries on Pandya’s potential rise to leadership within the Indian set-up after a very impressive run as the Titans skipper in the IPL. Dravid said Pandya being an established member of the side need not have a captaincy badge around his arm to be counted as an influential voice in the team.
