Wednesday 17 / April / 2024
Ben Stokes to captain Virat Kohli, Kapil Dev to chief of selectors MSK Prasad and Jacques Kallis to himself, Hardik Pandya has transformed himself from the horrible beginner that he was at the Adelaide Oval to the rock star he is today in a short, lucky spell of time.
It’s hard now to miss the constant sparks of incredible confidence and awesome attitude he carries off, a bit arrogantly though.
A few strands of coloured hair that decorate his head now and then are the only visible signs of rocky trappings. He doesn’t mind if you call him a rock star for experimenting with his hair and for his love of wearing different clothes.
Indian cricket has been looking for the next Kapil Dev ever since the legend retired in 1994.
The chief of selectors believes that the search has ended with Pandya—if the youngster “stays grounded”.
Pandya didn’t seem to be much amused about the “be the Ben Stokes” call made by Kohli. What makes his eyes pop out is the amazing record across all formats in the name of Kallis, scoring “all those runs at No. 3” and taking “all those wickets”. But his response to the Kapil comparison was just as grounded as Prasad would like him to be. The youngster will be “pretty happy” if he could be “even 10 per cent of what Kapil Dev was”.
Pandya did not get the opportunity to bat in the first international cricket match he had played. It was against Australia in the T20 match at Adelaide during the 2016 tour. MS Dhoni was still believed to have the power to give the innings the late flourish it deserved. Batting first, India had lost just three wickets to post 188 runs on the board, with Kohli (90 off 53 balls) and Dhoni (11 off three) remaining not out. Pandya got the ball in the eighth over, his first three deliveries were wide, there were two more later on and the 11-ball over cost him 19 runs. Obviously, his self-belief and hard work have got him where he is now, but he has a long way to go before he could step into the shoes of the legend.
Kapil Dev was a great pace bowler who was India’s strike bowler for almost the entire course of his career. He was an awesome batsman. He won matches for India many times being both, bowler and batsman, single-handedly. That’s the task cut out for Pandya. Hard, yes, but Pandya has the potential.
The proof that Pandya could do it is in the pudding he has cooked in the last few months, and they included the surprise entry before Dhoni in the Champions Trophy opener against Pakistan to power the innings with a quickfire 20 off eight balls, including three back-to-back sixes in the last over off Imad Wasim; the flame of hope he kept alive until the horrible miscommunication with Ravindra Jadeja resulted in his walking angrily back to the dressing room shaking his head, stabbing the air with his bat and smashing the boundary board in frustration; the late flourish he provided in the first Test where his 50 off 49 balls helped India post an imposing first innings total of 600; and the breezy century off 86 balls in the third Test that took the game away from Sri Lanka.
At the moment, Pandya is an awesome contributor to the cause, primarily as a batsman and at times as a bowler. He is a batting all-rounder, and a bowler who fills in the space, across all formats. It’s hard to imagine him becoming the strike bowler, like Kapil Dev, anytime soon or the premier batsman for the team, but if he could do what he is doing at the moment with the bat consistently for some time to put fear in the mind of the opposition every time he walks out to the crease, he will be getting close to 10 per cent of what Kapial Dev had achieved.
That done, he could fuel himself for the rest of the race—the entire, more challenging 90 per cent to emerge ultimately as the new generation Kapil Dev. Or, still better!
