One can never speak enough of Hardik Pandya’s contribution in the white-ball setup for Team India. Once again, he shone with the bat and the ball in the Champions Trophy, a title that the team lifted after 12 years. In 5 matches, he picked 4 wickets, to go with 99 runs with the bat. On the night of the final too, when India needed some quick runs, he released the pressure with his 18-run innings, where he hit a six and a four.
Hardik Pandya The Ultimate Saviour for India
His teammate Axar Patel made the right assessment of the all-rounder. He went on to reveal after the match, that Hardik Pandya remains the most confident even under pressure. Losing control, Axar said jovially, “jab hum sabki fa** jati hain, tab Hardik Pandya sabse jyada confident hota hain (When we’re all under pressure, Hardik is the most confident guy).”
Plays Crucial Role in Champions Trophy
Meanwhile, this is India’s first ICC ODI trophy since 2013, after having lost in the final of 2017 CT, and then the World Cup final 2023. Excellent performances came from every player in the team, where there was no real weak link. As far as the final is concerned, first New Zealand set India a target of 252, and then Rohit Sharma’s team went over the line with an over to spare.
Daryll Mitchell and Michael Bracewell went on to score fifties for the Kiwi team, while Rohit Sharma scored 76 from 83 in the second innings. KL Rahul chipped in with a valuable 34 and Shreyas Iyer scored 48. As for bowlers, Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav were excellent for India, picking two wickets each.
