Hardik Pandya 2.0: The all-rounder who can bat, bowl and lead from the front

Before the injury Pandya was flying high. In the previous 12 months, the all-rounder had played in 44 matches. Only Rohit Sharma with 46 games had played more.

The 2018 IPL was a fruitful one for Pandya as he scored 260 runs and picked 18 wickets for his former side Mumbai Indians.

It had been a little over a year since Pandya had made his Test debut. In his first Test innings, Pandya hit a fifty against Sri Lanka at Galle. In his third Test, Pandya hammered three consecutive sixes en route to his maiden Test hundred. In his next Test Pandya scored 93 against South Africa in Cape Town, an opponent and a country against whom and where even the best Indian batters have found it tough. In August 2018, a month before Pandya suffered the back injury, he came up with a truly "all-around" performance against England at Nottingham. The all-rounder hit fifties in each of the two innings and bowled a spell of 6/50 as India defeated England by 203 runs. The two half-centuries and the five-for had convinced almost everyone that India had finally got its "next Kapil Dev".

In ODIs too Pandya had shone with some flashes of brilliance. Like his 76 against Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy final. Or his blistering fifties and spells of 2/28 and 1/58 in the five-match ODI series against Australia. Both the performance won Pandya the Player of the Match awards and convinced former Aussie skipper and one of the finest readers of the game, Ian Chappell that "Hardik Pandya could become the match-turning allrounder India have been looking for".

But the back injury was the beginning of Pandya's long ordeal — his career, flourishing until that point, became a stop-start affair. Pandya played just one more Test since his show at Nottingham. He played 21 ODIs after sustaining that injury. Exactly a year later since being "stretchered off" against Pakistan, Pandya appeared in a T20I game against South Africa and played a further 15 T20Is up until November 2021.

Despite the struggles with the back, Pandya remained a constant fixture for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He put on a brave show in the 2019 edition of the league hitting 402 runs and claiming 12 wickets. Pandya's all-around show was one of the pivotal reasons for Mumbai Indians to win the IPL trophy that season.  Pandya was part of the Indian squad for the 2019 World Cup. In England, Pandya picked 10 wickets but could conjure only three scores of 40s with the bat. To manage his workload he was rested for the West Indies tour after the World Cup.

In October 2019, Pandya underwent successful surgery as the acute lower-back injury resurfaced and he was expected to be out of action for at least four months. By now it was clear that Pandya's injury which he picked up against Pakistan could have been one of those career-altering ones.

“I genuinely thought that my career was over because I’d never seen anyone being stretchered off. I was knocked out for 10 minutes, after that the pain never went down,” Hadik Pandya said to commentator Harsha Bhogle in an interview for Cricbuzz.

Pandya's fitness issues meant he did not bowl a single over for Mumbai Indians in the 2020 season of the IPL and played purely as a batter. The story repeated itself as Rohit Sharma did not offer Pandya the ball in the 2021 edition.

Restricted to play only as a batter, Pandya's effectiveness was reduced. His form took a hit as the once big-hitting all-rounder could only muster 408 runs in 26 appearances for Mumbai Indians across the 2020 and 2021 seasons of the IPL. Mumbai Indians won the 2020 season, but Pandya's dip in form coupled with other issues meant that the team finished outside the top-four at the end of the league stage, thereby failing to qualify for the 2021 IPL playoffs.

Pandya's inability to regain full fitness and top form also meant that Mumbai Indians released the player ahead of the 2022 IPL Mega Auction. The move came as a surprise as, despite the loss of form, Pandya was expected to be retained by the franchisee. After all, it was with Mumbai Indias that Pandya had risen to fame and Pandya's all-round had made the team such a strong team.

Pandya was now being considered a fixture of the past. His failure to make regular appearances for team India meant that in March he fell from Grade A to Grade C in the BCCI central contracts system.

But as Mumbai Indians and BCCI started to look to a life beyond Pandya, the newcomers in the league, the Gujarat based franchisee, later named Gujarat Titans, picked Pandya from the players’ draft for a whooping sum of Rs 15 crore and designated him as the captain.

The move shocked many in cricketing circles and they had valid reasons.

Firstly, Pandya had not made any significant contributions with either the bat or with the ball in the preceding two seasons. Secondly and most importantly, Pandya had no track record as captain!

Yet there was something that only Pandya and the management of Gujarat Titans knew.

But as the 2021 season rolled on, Pandya started to show his mettle. Pandya delivered on all three fronts. He batted well, he bowled when needed and was a smart captain too.

As a batter what was also impressive was that Pandya chose a new role for himself as a batter. Breaking the old cast of being a finisher batting lower down the order, Pandya batted at No 4 and in one innings at No 3 too. Pandya absorbed the pressure and scored runs on a consistent basis.

If there were apprehensions of how well he can bowl, those were set aside as Pandya stepped up to bowl in the Power Plays and sent down deliveries at a good pace and suddenly surprised the batters with a bouncer or a 'slower one'. Early in the season in the clash of the newcomers against Lucknow Super Giants, Pandya bowled in an IPL game for the first time since 2019 final.  The Gujarat Titans captain also showed resilience. Pandya picked up a minor injury midway through the league stage and it was believed that he would no longer bowl to be on the safer side. But Pandya defied everyone and became fit enough to bowl again.

Hardik Pandya (Image: IPL/BCCI)

At the halfway mark of the league stage, Pandya became the first captain to opt to bat first thereby defying the convention that was set by the other nine captains. Pandya's calm demeanour galvanized his side as they were able to pull off tough chases.

Pandya's comeback in IPL 2022 culminated in 487 runs, 8 wickets and the shining IPL trophy. Most importantly, Pandya has convinced his doubters that his comeback is complete. He is also being touted as the next skipper of the Indian cricket team or at least being able enough to lead the side in white-ball cricket in absence of Rohit.

We are witnessing Hardik Pandya 2.0.  Despite playing international cricket for five and half years, representing India in 128 international games across the three formats and winning five IPL finals, the Hardik Pandya story might just be getting started.