The moment Hardik Pandya has been preparing for

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  • Hardik Pandya.

    The build-up to the India-Pakistan clash on June 4 has been rather strange. Usually, there is loud chatter, from fans back home, the players and even the media (to an extent) gets involved.

    Quite simply, it is the biggest game of any cricket tournament, certainly bigger than a Champions Trophy final.

    The alleged spat between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble however has diverted attention away from the clash. Pakistan are more or less silent in preparation, while anyone involved with Indian cricket is more worried about who said what, to whom, and when.

    Under normal circumstances, it would be a quite different conversation – who will play, will Yuvraj Singh be fit, will India opt for two spinners or three pacers, and so on.

    Perhaps we have all been fooled. Maybe the Indian coach and captain are having a chat at this very moment, and laughing at us all, whilst discussing strategy for the big game on Sunday. They looked at ease on Friday at least, as Kumble gave throw-downs to Kohli in the indoor nets at Edgbaston.

    Quite possibly, they know who their openers are, just what the batting line-up will look like, and what bowling combination they want. That last bit offers quite a lot of permutations for this Indian squad.

    Picking four pacers for a tournament in the first half of any English summer is par for the course. The Indian selectors threw up a surprise when they only picked two full-time spinners and an extra batsman in Dinesh Karthik.

    The wonder was really in selecting the four-plus-two combination, but in the team management’s mind, balancing the playing eleven was never really a question mark. The answer to it, of course, is Hardik Pandya.

    “I always believed I should play for the Indian team. It has only been about how I can contribute to the team’s winning cause. People are very curious about what is going to happen in this tournament. Let us see what happens,” said Pandya after the warm-up game against Bangladesh on Tuesday.

    He speaks in a matter-of-fact manner, reflecting a confidence that belies his age. All of 23 years old, Pandya knows he is the answer to India’s ever-pertinent all-rounder question. For eons now, the search has been on for a replacement to Kapil Dev.

    Decades have passed, captains and coaches have finished terms, all of them lamenting the absence of a pace-bowling all-rounder who could balance the team, especially in overseas conditions. Indian cricket had nearly given up on finding one.

    It was in January 2016 that Pandya re-ignited that search with a brilliant showing for Baroda in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Tournament. By the end of the month, he was on the plane to Australia, a shock inclusion for the three T20Is against Australia. That short series saw the return of Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra and Suresh Raina to the fold, in preparation for the ensuing World T20. The real curiosity though was around Pandya.

    He was smacked in his first outing, but nerves can play a big part on international debut. Even so, it was clearer what the Indian team management – MS Dhoni was skipper back then – wanted of him. For the World T20, India were looking to solve their problem of the fifth bowler, someone who could do the job with the ball in the middle overs and hit a couple of big ones with the bat at the end of an innings.

    Pandya didn’t bat much in the World T20, but his last over against Bangladesh at Bengaluru is already part of folklore. Dhoni might have mugged the Tigers on the last ball, but it was Pandya who defended 10 off the last over – conceding no runs off the last three balls with two wickets.

    It was deliverance of the proverbial kind, almost as if he was meant to shine on the big stage, before a no-ball in the semi-final against West Indies put an end to India’s run.

    Thereafter, Pandya went on a downward spiral, suffering a poor IPL and was then left out of the squad for the Zimbabwean tour. Fate though had bigger plans for him, as he traversed Down Under with India A under Rahul Dravid. This was a game-changer.

    Afterwards, Pandya’s meteoric rise came as no surprise. He was back in the blue jersey in October 2016 against New Zealand, and then by the end of the year, was part of the Test squad against England. The standout moment was when he was handed the new ball on ODI debut against the Blackcaps at Dharamsala, and returned 3/31 in a seven-over spell.

    In early autumn, conditions at the hill-station stadium were chilly, with ample green on the pitch and enough bounce in it. Pandya’s showing was an indicator of how the selectors and team management wanted to use him in the future.

    He was no more that bit-part player, instead it was time to put more responsibility on his shoulders. His final lesson came at Delhi, when chasing 243, Pandya and Kedar Jadhav fluffed up the finishing overs.

    Hardik Pandya's ODI stats

    • Matches: 7
    • Runs: 160
    • Wickets: 9
    • Best Bowling: 3/31

    “During the England ODI series (in January), I asked Dhoni about finishing, and he told me stop looking at the scoreboard. He told me to see the situation and play accordingly. Then, there is no pressure on you as the motive is to take the team to victory. You don’t think about doing something special but play according to the situation,” said Pandya.

    Over the course of this past season then, Pandya has cemented the No.7 spot in the ODI eleven. It elongates the batting line-up to accommodate a big-hitter, while providing new skipper Kohli with an additional bowler, both a premium in these early summer conditions prevalent here in the Champions Trophy.

    “It is a small tournament (as per time), but it is a big one,” Pandya said, building up to his maiden bow in English conditions. Thing is, still, no one is talking about it.

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