Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri showered praise on Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya for his fine show in the ongoing IPL 2022. Shastri said Pandya has the burning desire to win the trophy with Gujarat Titans. Pandya has excelled both as a player and captain in the ongoing season of the Tata IPL.
GT defeated Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Tuesday to qualify for the final of the tournament. Hardik Pandya once again led from the front as he scored an unbeaten knock of 40 runs off just 27 balls. Pandya was able to hit the ground running and took the pressure off David Miller’s shoulders as the South African got off to a slow start in the run-chase of 189 runs.
Pandya has been able to get the best out of his players and all the players have put their hands up on the right occasion for him. The right-hander has scored 460 runs in 14 matches at an impressive average of 45.30 and a fine strike rate of 132.84. Furthermore, he has scalped five wickets for GT in the ongoing season.
“There is a burning desire to win, being a team from Gujarat, the final is in Gujarat, he wants to take that there,” Ravi Shastri told Star Sports.
Former Indian all-rounder believes the extra responsibility of captaincy has helped Pandya’s batting. The right-hander has played maturely in the middle order and he has looked to play an anchor’s role in most of the matches.
“He has tremendous confidence in his ability. He reads the game extremely well. He always wanted to bat higher up the order He can bat like a No. 4 batter. He reads the situations of the game, he reads the conditions, he knows his role and what is required and for captaining the side, the added responsibility has done wonders to his batting,” Shastri added.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya took a backseat when David Miller was going all guns blazing at fag end of the run-chase. 16 runs were needed and Miller finished the game with the hat-trick of sixes.
“He can play both ways, make no mistake about it. If he were on strike for the final over, he might have done exactly what David Miller did. He kept his cool,” Shastri added.
GT will now play the IPL final on May 29 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
