IPL 2022: Gujarat Titans’ Hardik Pandya is on fire, but he says he isn’t thinking about whether or not he would return to the national squad.
His national team comeback is out of his control, says Hardik Pandya, who is currently on a hot streak with three fifties in a row for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League. After missing out on Chennai Super Kings due to a groin ailment, the all-rounder returned to lead Gujarat Titans to an eight-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders with a 49-ball 67. With their third straight victory, the Titans remained atop the table.
My return to India isn’t a priority for me, and I don’t think it’s a return at all.” Pandya noted at the post-match press conference that he focuses solely on the sport he plays.
Following back surgery, the 28-year-old struggled to manage his workload as a bowler before returning to the IPL after his last game for India against Namibia in the T20 World Cup in Dubai last November.
Averaging 72.75 runs per six innings, Pandya is now second in the current IPL run chart behind leader Jos Buttler.
“I am now playing in the Indian Premier League and will devote my attention solely to that league in the near future. Never again will I have it. My primary concentration is on the group with whom I’m now participating. “I’m quite pleased with our progress,” he said.
Pandya says he’s savoring every moment of being Gujarat Titans’ captain.
“It’s clear that being a captain helps. I’ve always been a cricketer who relishes the opportunity to assume leadership roles. As someone who battled for a long time, he feels that he has a good grasp of the game.
“You’re winning because you know how to play the game. Because I’ve played so many games, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge. He went on to say, “So far, so good.”
At one point, the Titans were 133/2 in 16 overs, but they lost four wickets in the penultimate over and finished on 156/9.
“I think we were short by about 15 runs; they came out strong in the end.” With that kind of bowling assault, however, I decided to take a chance. The wicket was bouncy in both directions. I thought the length ball’s back worked well,” Pandya said.
However, head coach Brendon McCullum claimed his team is confident of reaching the semifinals despite their fourth straight defeat.
“The hitting unit’s confidence should remain high. According to McCullum, “we’re still confident that we can compete for a spot in the championship game’s semifinals.”
KKR needed 29 runs from the final two overs to chase down 157 and Russell was on fire. A brilliant last over from Alzarri Joseph saw Russell removed for a 25-ball 48 to end their hopes of a comeback.
It’s been a great start for our hitters.” During the last game in which we competed, we tallied around 210. In the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Sunrisers Hyderabad match, our first-innings total was 170-plus, and our batsmen were “predominantly extremely well,” he remarked.
Overall, I think we’ve done a good job at the plate.” He went on to say, “It was fairly nice, but sadly it wasn’t enough to come back from 34/4 and rebuild the innings with Russell.”
Even with the ball, we were unable to get going in the powerplay,” KKR captain Shreyas Iyer said after his side’s defeat. “In these situations, we should not have given up so much.” As far as I’m concerned, we did a good job of keeping the score between 160 and 165. ” This system requires us to win all of our close matchups in order to climb the ladder.
“Three of our last four matches were really close. “It’s sad that we weren’t able to take advantage of the strong excitement and feeling before the game,” he said.
