Watch: Krunal Pandya speaks out about the importance of Mumbai Indians in his cricket career

Krunal Pandya was picked by MI in 2016 and played a big role in MI winning the title in 2017.

Krunal Pandya | IANS

The Pandya brothers - Krunal and Hardik - owe their success to Mumbai Indians (MI), something they have acknowledged many times. Elder Pandya, Krunal recently talked about his journey and once again pointed out the importance of playing for MI in his life.

Krunal had struggled a lot to achieve the success he has. He talked about his U-23 match which almost knocked him down. But he decided to fight back. “I had my reality check during a U23 game- Baroda vs Karnataka. This was the turning point of my life. It was the end of the 4th days play, we were trying to save the game.I played a poor shot and got out, and was dropped from the team immediately. I went home and cried for an hour.”

“It was hurting and I began to think about what I had achieved in my life. My parents had done so much for me. sacrificed so much. They had relocated cities just so that I could play well. I was 22-23 and I had nothing to show for it. At the time I got that reality check, I felt miserable…But that was the best thing that could have happened to me." he said.

The southpaw also added how he changed himself and started working on his own growth rather than following the goals which helped him. Krunal also mentioned how IPL franchise Mumbai changed his life completely.

"After that things turned around for me within a couple of years. I stopped setting career goals for myself and all that I wanted was to improve as a player and as a human being. After that Mumbai Indians gave me the big break and people know me today only because of Mumbai Indians” he further added.

Krunal was picked to play for MI in 2016. The last two seasons for him was so good that the franchise decided to retain him for 2018 at a whopping price of Rs 8.8 crore. Justifying his retention, he played a match-winning knock for his team against Kings XI Punjab lately. He scored 31 runs off 12 balls.

“I was disappointed that I could not deliver when I was presented with a similar opportunity in the last match at Bengaluru; we had needed about 60 runs in the last five overs,” he said. “That motivated me; I wanted to win this game for my team.”

Here is the full video: 

 

 
 

By Sihyeu Singh - 12 May, 2018

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