Why Indian cricket fans should be patient with Hardik Pandya

Away tours are never easy for players, especially for those who are going on one for the first time. Same was the case with Hardik Pandya when he received his Test cap in August against Sri Lanka. The all-rounder repaid the faith shown in him and scored his first Test ton with a strike rate of above-100 in the very first Test series he played.

A fast-bowling all-rounder with high scoring abilities is what a top team needs in their armoury and Pandya is the weapon that India need. The stakes were high for the all-rounder, especially after the performances he gave in Sri Lanka and also after his gritty 93-run knock in the first innings of the Cape Town Test against South Africa.

However, after that, the player failed to shine with the bat and all the voices comparing him with the great Kapil Dev suddenly wanted him out of the team.

Captain's Trust

Virat Kohli is doing the right thing by trusting his young players

The best feeling for a budding player on the international level is the captain’s trust. Many players like Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli and many more, shined at this level just because the captain during their time trusted them and supported them during their failure.

Kohli was all praise for Pandya, whose 93 was a face-saver for the team in the first Test on South African tour.

“We believe in Pandya. He always wants to do well, even away from home. He showed a lot of character and the knock was brilliant. I thought 270 was par but Pandya then took risks and it came off."

Nothing is more pleasing from a player's point of view than to hear this from the captain himself. Although the all-rounder failed with the bat after that first innings, he proved his captain right by getting the team crucial wickets throughout the series with his bowling and fielding.

Not only on this occasion but after the first Champions Trophy match against Pakistan, where the all-rounder smashed Imad Wasim for three consecutive sixes, the Indian skipper said,"He (Hardik) is a real asset for Indian cricket, I would say. It’s very hard to find a guy who can almost touch 140 kph and who strikes the way he strikes the ball. And he can bat through the innings as well.People should appreciate his skill and what he brings to the table. A lot of people focus on a lot of other things about Hardik, which I don’t think should be anyone else’s problem. He has his own journey, and he is finding his own way."

Virat Kohli, later on, added,"If he gets the kind of support that a player like him should get, I think he could go down as one of the most accomplished Indian cricketers in times to come."

Why the team needs him

Pandya possesses the ability to well both with bat and ball.

Pandya, since his debut, has shown time and again why he deserves a place in the team. The Mumbai Indians all-rounder rose to fame with his performances in the IPL and was then directly drafted to the Indian squad.

Batting and Fielding

Pandya may not have the best of footwork against pace but he is deadly against spin. When it comes to fielding, he is a superb athlete with one of the highest fitness levels in the team. He was the one who sent set Hashim Amla back twice with his inch perfect throws.

The all-rounder has performed and found a way out for Team India on quite a few occasions. One such occasion was in the bilateral series against Australian pace bowlers in Chennai where he scored 83 alongside MS Dhoni to save the match, which India went on to win later on. And again, he proved himself with an innings of 78 in the third ODI in Indore where he was promoted to No.4 above MS Dhoni.

The batsman showed a lot of character in his debut Test. Against Sri Lanka, Pandya scored his maiden half-century with a strike rate of above 100. And in the third test of the same series, he blasted his maiden Test century - 108 runs of just 96 balls.

Hardik Pandya's batting and fielding stats

Though his batting average is not good enough, especially knowing the fact that he has been in and around the international circuit for more than a year now, what needs to be noticed is that all of his major knocks came at the time when the team needed him the most.

Bowling

Pandya may not be like Jasprit Bumrah or Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who have many variations in their armoury, but he is useful with his pace bowling and is an asset for the captain nonetheless.

He can also be very useful with the new ball as we saw earlier in his career where former captain MS Dhoni trusted his abilities at the start of an innings. He can even bowl at the death, like he did against Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup 2016.

Bowling stats

Again, stats do not favour the player here but the thing to keep in mind is that he has been a part of key dismissals as a bowler. Even on the recently concluded South African tour, Pandya dismissed AB de Villiers twice in the ODI series.

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"It’s all about winning. Stats really don’t matter, I mean, guys have really great series and all that, and all people take notice and take their place in history with those stats and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, it's all about winning and what you can do to get your team to that point"

-Stephen Curry

The first few away tours are always tough for any world-class player and a failure or two does not define them. The need of the hour is to be patient with Pandya.