‘Mereko jo bolte hain wo main karta hoon’- Hardik Pandya gives an honest answer with regards to the 2nd T20I team against England

Hardik Pandya has had a great resurgence in form after being in and out of the team due to injury. In the Indian T20 League, the Gujarat born took the Gujarat team to their first-ever Indian T20 League trophy, and that too in their debut season. He also came good with the bat and made 487 runs in 15 matches with an average of 44.27. On the back of a great performance, the all-rounder made a strong comeback to the team.

Coming into the Indian side, Hardik impressed from the word get-go in the India- South Africa series. He was further rewarded with a captaincy role in the India-Ireland series where he led the team to a 2-0 win over the Irish T20I side.

Currently, the right-hand batter is on a tour to England and played his first game against England in T20 internationals in England. He came up with his best performance with the bat in T20Is (51 urns) as well as bowl (4-33-4). The second T20I is scheduled for 9th July 2022 when senior players, who were rested after the fifth Test, would return.

The team is yet to be decided. When the same question was asked to Hardik Pandya, he said, “Sir wo toh pata nahi, wo toh management ka hi kaam hai. Main toh bas India ka ek all-rounder ki tarha khelta hu. Mereko jo bolte hai wo main karta hu. Aur usse zyada dimag lagata nahi. (Sir, I don’t know much about management’s thinking. I’m just playing as an all-rounder. I do as the management says without thinking much.)”

Focus is to play as many matches as that come my way: Hardik Pandya

The 28-year-old has come out and said that playing for the country in white ball is his main focus at the time.

“This is a white-ball season in a way. There are a couple of world cups coming so for me, it would be better if I can play as much white ball as possible when the opportunity comes to play Tests then definitely but right now the focus is to play as many matches that come my way and perform my 100% in those. If I can’t then I will go out, I won’t take anybody’s place,” he stated