Thought my career was over after bowling my first eight balls, reveals Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya, in a conversation with Harsha Bhogle, has stated that he had fear for his career when he conceded 26 runs from his first 8 balls of his international career. Pandya has further added that MS Dhoni wanted him to learn from his own experiences and rise as a cricketer.
After ending up as the highest run-scorer for Baroda in the 2015-16 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, Hardik Pandya was called up for India's limited-overs tour to Australia. Although he gave away 37 runs in three overs, the fact that he got the better of Mathew Wade and Chris Lynn levelled things for him.Ā
However, that didnāt happen just like that. The Pandya Junior was at the receiving end of some Aaron Finch onslaught, with one of those sixes going past over 100 meters. Pandya recalled the nervousness of that night, by saying he thought his career was over.
"I conceded 26 runs from my first 8 balls and frankly thought my career was over. When I was hit for a huge six, almost 105-110m, I thought I was done. I felt it couldn't get worse than this and thankfully I managed to snare a couple of wickets," Pandya told Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz in Conversation.
Making his T20I and ODI debut under MS Dhoni, Pandya has always been open in his admiration for the former Indian skipper and how he changed his career for good. He has also added that the current management - including Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri - have always backed him to come good and that trust factor helped him really well.
"I think he (MS Dhoni) wanted me to learn from my own experiences. Virat and Ravi bhai (Shastri), they have given me that freedom, not just to me, but for everyone in the team. That's the beauty of this current Indian team, we have all made mistakes, but we are also learning at a very rapid pace. Those two have backed me a lot."