Hardik Pandya won the hearts of many cricket fans as he handed over the winner’s trophy to debutant Umran Malik after beating Ireland in the second T20I and winning the series 2-0. India won the second T20I by a narrow margin of 4 runs despite scoring 225 runs batting first.
This was a tradition that was started by MS Dhoni and many felt nice that ever since him, all Indian captains have carried it on. This was also Hardik Pandya’s first-time captaining India in any format and he not only won the toss in both matches but also white-washed Ireland in the series.
Pandya ticked almost all the boxes in his first assignment as India captain – his decisions were well effective and well thought out while he looked good with both bat and ball.
Thanks to Deepak Hooda’s 104 and Sanju Samson’s 77, India posted 225/7 in 20 overs. Ireland almost gave India the shock of their lives as it made 221/5 in 20 overs, thanks to Andy Balbirnie scoring a half-century and vital contributions from Paul Stirling (40), Harry Tector (39), and George Dockrell (34*), and fell only 4 runs short.
After being handed the trophy, Hardik handed it to youngster Umran Malik, who had made his India debut in the series and also bowled the final over, defending 17 runs despite bowling a no-ball and conceding a four.
After handing the trophy to Umran, Hardik stealthily moved to the background and was seen at the extreme left in the group photograph. This was something that MS Dhoni used to do when he was India's captain and used to hand over the trophy to the newest member of the team.
When Dhoni stepped down as captain, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma carried the same practice and now Hardik has too.
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