Every batsman played an important role in the India vs Pakistan match on Sunday. But whole of the Indian Fans were shocked when Yuvraj got out and Hardik Pandya stepped on to the ground. According to the batting line up, MS Dhoni was supposed to come after Yuvraj, but coach Kumble might be having some other plans. So he sent Hardik Pandya ahead of Dhoni.
Hardik didn’t let him down and smashed three consecutive sixes and making 20 runs in just 6 balls. However according to Pandya, he also didn’t know about his promotion in batting order and it was a last minute decision.
“I got to know in the 46th over, when coach told me, ‘You will be going next, go pad up.’ Obviously, I padded up quickly and once I got my gloves, I went out straightaway because Yuvi paa got out,” Pandya said in an interview.
“Honestly I won’t lie, pressure was there. But still at the back of my mind, I was thinking of it as a normal game because I didn’t want to take unnecessary pressure. In any game, I wouldn’t want to take unnecessary pressure on myself because that makes you do something that you are not supposed to do. Even this game, I was keeping pretty normal. I was pretty calm, composed. I tried not to think of it as a big match as well, just take it as a normal game, an important game for India like any match we play. And eventually we did pretty well and won it,” he further added.
Also Kohli while praising his team’s batting performance made a special note for pandya saying, “Hardik finishing it off was really outstanding. The batting I would say was 10 out of 10.”