Gujarat Titans won the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya.
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Gujarat Titans won the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya. However, ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, a lot of questions were raised over the fitness and form of him as well as he was out of action earlier because of his back surgery. Later, he was doing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore also. Moreover, his team Gujarat Titans wasn’t considered a strong side in the cash-rich league, as well as the team, didn’t feature many big names also.
But Hardik Pandya and his boys stunned everyone and left everyone surprised with their stellar performance in the tournament. The Titans won 10 out of 14 league matches and lost only 4 games, finishing at the top of the points table as well. Moreover, they were the first side to make it to the playoffs and eventually finished as the winner of the league as well. Pandya smashed 487 runs, which came at an average of 44.27, along with 8 wickets as well. And, former India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar was extremely happy to see Pandya back in form, before the much-awaited T20 World Cup in Australia as well.
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While speaking on Star Sports after the IPL 2022 final in Ahmedabad, Gavaskar said that the Indian selectors would be satisfied to see a fit-again Hardik Pandya who is scoring runs and bowling well. “The selection committee will be delighted with the way he has come through. Everyone had seen him batting but nobody had seen him bowl. Now he is coming and bowling four overs sometimes or three overs on the trot which shows that he is 100 per cent fit. But yes, he has got to be managed well. When you have a back injury as serious as that where you have surgery, you got to be managed. But the fact that he is coming and bowling at over 140, means he was letting it rip,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports after the final.
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Sunil Gavaskar has also highlighted the improvement in Hardik Pandya’s shot selection as well. Gavaskar further added that captaincy has played a major role in his batting skills. “Also, the shot selection he showed as a batter. He wasn’t throwing his bat at just about everything. It was absolutely terrific. In this game, you tend to look for six and get out but generally with captaincy, just like it did with Rohit Sharma, the shot selection became better. Rohit, too like Hardik was brilliant, but the moment he got the captaincy, he started scoring 70, 80, 100s as well,” he shared about Hardik Pandya.
