Hardik Pandya can bring fearlessness to the India T20 team as captain
IND vs NZ, South Africa’s go-to man in pressure situations, David Miller believes that as captain Hardik Pandya can infuse much-needed fearlessness into India’s T20 set-up with his exemplary clarity of mind and work ethic.
Hardik is seen as the skipper of the Indian team at the 2024 T20 World Cup with current skipper Rohit Sharma not expected to carry on in the shortest format for upcoming years. Hardik has been impressive as Gujarat Titans captain in the IPL 2022, where he led the team to the title in the maiden season itself.
IND vs NZ: Miller has finally realized his rich potential and becomes of the best finishers in the game over the last couple of years. Also, Hardik played a crucial role in leading Gujarat Titans to the title on their IPL debut.
“Just playing under him in the IPL, I feel he is a natural leader, People follow him. He allows you to play the way that you feel like you can and very inclusive as a leader. He also wants everyone to be close to each other.”
“In IPL he got better and better as the season progressed and I see him doing that (with the Indian team as well).” Miller was quoted as saying by the PTI on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi T10 League.
India is in desperate need of a change in mindset, IND vs NZ
Can Hardik effect that change and let the players not worry about the fear of failure? “Yes. He will make the players a lot better in the mindset for sure. He allows the team mates to do what they want to do which is important,”
With so much cricket taking place around the world every day. A modern-day cricketer like Miller might not find time to reflect on his past mistakes. However, the South African Cricketer spent a lot of time thinking about the sudden elimination from the T20 World Cup in Australia.
They were looking strong but an unexpected loss to the Netherlands ended in another heartbreak for the perennial underachievers in international cricket in the ICC T20 WC. Sometimes it is difficult to process things like that. At end of the day, I still feel we were one of the stronger teams in the competition.
“There were many other upset moments as well, it was not only us. When it comes down to the last game and unfortunately for us, we needed to win and we couldn’t. That is the beauty and humility of cricket. Obviously we were very disappointed with that result.”
“I was hoping he would drop it. I was looking at the ball every second and it was coming up and down in the air and he managed to take a great catch. It is disappointing to finish like that but also the joys of World Cup,” Miller concludes.
“You see different teams coming in and minor teams competing against major teams”
However, he has only built that reputation in the last couple of years, having made his international debut way back in 2010. Miller made a lot of mistakes along the way but managed to learn from them, resulting in remarkable consistency.
“I have been playing for a long time now, I don’t want to say I know it all because I don’t at all. Still, lots to learn but I have been playing professional cricket for 14 years. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life in my journey of cricket.
“If you are not learning from mistakes, you are not getting better. I am trying to implement that, especially in pressure situations. When the pressure is there, you are obviously making more mistakes.”
But if you have the experience of playing in pressure you tend to think a lot clearer about requirement of the team and what you need to do and are not irrational. The way I think and the confidence that I have, I feel I can finish a game from any situation. That is probably the reason for consistency.
Talking about Abu Dhabi T10 league: On the T10 format It is short, it is sharp, it is fast and it is exciting. You can play quite a few games in one day. It is more exciting than T20 in a sense that it is quicker. It has its challenges as well like every other format.
