Even though he had a disappointing Indian Premier League (IPL) season, the team management of India led by bowling coach Paras Mhambrey have expressed their trust in Hardik Pandya’s potentials to deliver for the outfit during the T20 World Cup.
Pandya has been an integral part of the Indian bowling attack picking five wickets at an economy rate of 6.37 in the first two matches of the tournament.
While his batting performance has still not been felt much, Paras Mhambrey stated that form was not an issue for his side regarding Pandya.
Mhambrey said that Pandya did not lack confidence in himself and they knew that he would soon get back into gear again.
“Hardik’s self-confidence never wavered. Sometimes, you’re just out of rhythm, no matter what you do. You are consistently bowling but nothing seems to be happening. His work ethic stayed constant throughout. We knew it was going to happen,” explained Paras Mhambrey during a pre-game news briefing.
The upcoming next match against co-hosts USA is on Wednesday in New York and the management wants him to play a major role in this tournament as well
During IPL, Mumbai Indians’ captaincy fell on Pandya for the first time in his career history where he played 14 games averaging 27.63 with bat and took 11 wickets conceding 387 runs
Early in the competition, fans criticized him but if not then maybe there could have been some concern towards his work ethic which would lead to performing poorly at T20 World Cup?
“If it was worrisome, he would not have done anything in that phase. If he did not work on that, then it was a little worrisome. But one thing was, for sure, I knew that I also followed that, that his work ethic was going on same as before. So, if that is going on with him then after one or two matches, the rhythm of the bowler comes. After he got into that rhythm, you can see the difference between the IPL and this tournament,” he added.
Pandya was significant in India’s triumph over Pakistan with important wickets of Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan.
