After showing an expanded range and enhanced pressure-handling abilities in the white-ball leg of the Australian summer, India's Hardik Pandya said he won't mind if told to stay back as a specialist batsman for the Test matches coming up.
Asked about it in Sydney during the post-match press conference after the second T20I on Sunday (December 6), Hardik said, "It's a different ball game (Test cricket), I think I need to be, I mean I don't mind but at the end of the day, the call is on the management. So, yeah, I don't think I can say much about it."
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Plagued by injuries, the all-rounder hasn't featured for India in the whites since the 2018 tour of England. In 11 Tests, he has a batting average of 31.29 and a bowling average of 31.05.
Hardik, who did give India four quiet overs during the second ODI last Sunday (November 29) without looking 100%, has otherwise played the tour so far as a specialist batter. Impressing everyone with his highly improved batsmanship during the ODIs, Hardik has extended that stellar form to the T20Is.
At the SCG, he helped India chase down the massive 195-run target and claim the series 2-0 with an amazing knock of 42 not out in just 22 balls.
"During the lockdown, I wanted to focus on finishing games where it matters the most. It doesn't matter whether I score or don't score more runs," he said.
"I have been in these situations many times and I learnt from my mistakes in the past. My game is always around the confidence which I carry, it has that fine line where I back myself and not become overconfident."
"I always remember all those times when we chased big totals and it helps."
Hardik finished off the proceedings in style in the final over of the second T20I, hitting left-arm seamer Daniel Sams for two huge sixes over wide long-on.
"It was not about what they are doing, it was about what I can do," he said on his mindset in the situation. "It's a matter of two big shots and today it came off. I always back myself. It's the situation I have always played. Whatever the team requires I always try to do."
"It's very simple. I like to look at scoreboard and play so that I know which bowlers to target," Hardik added.
(Inputs from PTI)
