“Leadership has come naturally to him” - Gujarat Titans mentor Gary Kirsten hails skipper Hardik Pandya

Gujarat Titans’ (GT) batting coach and mentor Gary Kirsten has praised captain Hardik Pandya as a natural leader and described him as a cricketer who wants to keep learning.

Pandya, 28, led GT to victory in their maiden IPL season during the recently concluded edition. His leadership came in for a lot of praise as the all-rounder also led from the front with the bat, hammering 487 runs in 15 matches.

According to Kirsten, Pandya likes getting involved in conversations related to the sport and is keen to get to know his teammates better. Speaking to TOI, he said:

"I've been impressed with Hardik Pandya. Not having known him well earlier, I've got a view on him now that he's this cricketer who just plays instinctively and takes the game on. He engages in a lot of cricket conversations and wants to learn, wants to get better and improve and understand his players."

Describing Pandya as a fantastic cricketer, the South African legend added:

"What stands him apart is how keen he is to learn. He is one of those players. And we've seen how leadership has come so naturally to him. He is an impact-player who can win games for you and to have someone that could do it with bat and ball, especially in a format as short and unpredictable as this one, is special.”

Apart from being the highest run-getter for the franchise, the Gujarat skipper also chipped in with the ball, claiming eight wickets with his medium pace. His best figures of three for 17 came in the IPL 2022 final against the Rajasthan Royals (RR). His three victims were RR’s big guns - Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer.

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“As a new franchise, our focus was in trying to understand combinations” - Gary Kirsten

Being a new franchise, there were apprehensions about how Gujarat would perform in IPL 2022. Also, not many pundits were impressed with their squad selection at the auction. However, GT ignored all the criticism and emerged champions.

Explaining how Gujarat went about putting together their squad for their debut IPL season, the former South African opener said:

"As a new franchise, our focus was in trying to understand combinations, building a team, making sure that we do what we can to keep improving with each game and that's how we went about. We started the tournament on a good note and that was nice because it took a bit of pressure off early on.”

While Kirsten mentored Gujarat players during the IPL 2022 campaign, former Indian left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra served as the head coach and former England batter Vikram Solanki as the director of cricket.

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