Hardik Pandya will captain the Ahmedabad franchise in IPL 2022.
Hardik Pandya’s bowling fitness has been a cause of concern for the Indian cricket team in the past couple of years, and that probably forced the Mumbai Indians (MI) to not retain the cricketer ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022) mega auction.
Pandya’s back problem has been constantly troubling him, preventing him from bowling at his full capacity for the past two years, but the all-rounder recently said he would "surprise" everyone during the upcoming IPL 2022, where he will be captaining the Ahmedabad franchise.
The 28-year-old last played for India in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE. Since then, he has been working hard on his fitness and bowling to return as a complete all-rounder.
There were speculations that he could decide to play only as a batter, considering his injuries and workload on his body, but the all-rounder made it clear that he still wants to contribute with the ball.
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Cricbuzz quoted Hardik Pandya as saying: “It's (bowling) a surprise for everyone. My team knows where I stand. It's been challenging. I've always been someone who contributes with the bat, ball and on the field. When I decided I will just bat, I wanted to spend some time on the ground. We all love challenges and I love to fight it out. Criticism is good and it doesn't really bother me.”
He continued, “For me, results do matter but I work hard for the process. I've always realized that as an all-rounder I give a lot of different options to the team. I'll try to work on being an all-rounder and if something doesn't work out then my batting is always there. But Hardik Pandya combined with both bat and ball, it sounds better than just a batter.”
Pandya signed off by saying on his batting positions for Ahmedabad in the IPL 15, “I've always been a cricketer who plays situations and if I have to go certain places where my team needs certain goals from me, as a group we will decide. I have not made any plans regarding that.”
(With IANS Inputs)