Hardik Pandya comes up clutch and embraces the big stage yet again

September 2, 2023, Pallekele Stadium, India are tottering at 66-4 as Hardik Pandya strides out to the center. India, for context, did win the toss and elected to bat first, only to see their much-vaunted top four fail miserably.

Shaheen Shah Afridi, after an initially sluggish start, is getting the ball to talk. Naseem Shah is making the most of the conditions and Haris Rauf, like always, is breathing fire. Ishan Kishan, playing his first ODI against Pakistan, is at the other end but is looking scratchy. There is not much batting after Pandya either, with Ravindra Jadeja being the only other recognized batter.

To put it bluntly, India are staring down the barrel. They are feeling the pinch. Against their arch-rivals, and if they are not careful, it could reach embarrassing proportions. All of this is enough to break the resolve of any cricketer, let alone someone who has not been in great form in 2023.

But when talking about players like Pandya, form and recent fortunes do not count for much. He embraces the big stage akin to many champion players in the past, and over the course of two action-packed hours against Pakistan at the Pallekele Stadium, he drives that point home again.

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Hardik Pandya has developed a knack for rising to the big occasion

The best part was this was not a typical Pandya innings, or the sort of knock that propelled him into the international and national limelight. The authoritative strokes were unfurled periodically but it was the maturity the ace all-rounder showed that illustrated how far he has come.

He knocked the ball around, picked and chose his moments to attack, and exuded composure as long as he was at the crease. Kishan, who was at the other end, also seemed to feed off it, playing a superb knock that helped India restore some sort of parity after a wobbly beginning.

Pandya, to his annoyance, could not finish the job and perished to Shaheen just before the final five overs dawned – his dismissal amplified by how tamely those below him wilted. By then, however, he had ensured that his bowlers had something to bowl at.

The all-rounder, because of how he plays the game, and because of his persona, might come across as an eccentric cricketer – one who is not very consistent but when he gets in the groove, can win his team games of cricket. Somehow, though, he finds a way to stand up just when his side needs him to. And there is a long list of such occasions.

Remember the 2017 Champions Trophy final, where Pakistan trounced India to win the title? The only time the Men in Blue felt they were in the game was when Pandya was smoking the Pakistan bowlers to all parts of The Oval. That innings ultimately ended in a run-out, and India crumbled to a defeat that had seemed inevitable before and after Pandya’s blitz.

Now to the 2022 edition of the Asia Cup, which was played in the T20 format. India faced Pakistan twice but won only once. Guess who won the Player of the Match award in the match that they won? Not only did the all-rounder hold his nerve with the bat, he was also quite efficient with the ball.

The T20 World Cup fixture against Pakistan will always be remembered for those Virat Kohli sixes off Rauf and that Kohli knock. Pandya, though, had an equally important role to play, grafting after the early setbacks and giving India the platform they needed to launch at the end.

In the semi-final of that tournament, most of India’s big guns failed to give them the impetus they needed. It was Pandya who starred with a 33-ball 63. England hunted down that score comfortably in the end, although there was no denying who India’s MVP was on that evening in Adelaide.

Even in the 2022 iteration of the IPL, which the Gujarat Titans won, the all-rounder saved his best for the summit clash, bagging the Player of the Match award, scoring a controlled 34 and picking up three wickets. His scalps that night were Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and Shimron Hetmyer – three of the Rajasthan Royals’ most belligerent batters, and perhaps those who presented the greatest threat to the Titans.

This evidence, thus, highlights what those who prioritize the eye test have known all along – that Pandya digs deep and comes up with something special when the stakes are high.

Saturday in Pallekele was no different. It was not a game that would have decided if India stayed in the Asia Cup or not but in a sequence where they might play Pakistan thrice (or maybe more times), they needed to stand strong in the face of adversity. Their top order did not, but Pandya did.

As long as the all-rounder is in the mix, India will feel they can emerge from such troubled waters unscathed. Of course, they will not want to find themselves in such situations often but the fact that Pandya is around, will certainly make them more comfortable.

That is only because he embraces the big stage like no other. And because he is slowly and surely becoming the archetypal clutch player – the sort of player that teams need to win major tournaments.