After suffering a serious injury and being booed mercilessly by the IPL crowd, Hardik Pandya bounced back to play a key role in India’s T20 World Cup victory.
Siddharth Monga
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After the epic escape during the 2022 T20 World Cup match against Pakistan, Hardik Pandya sat with reporters on the floor of the press box at the MCG. This wasn’t a press conference but a mixed media zone, an ICC initiative to encourage more casual and friendly interaction with players at the World Cup. In such an environment, players are less conscious of the camera and more likely to speak from their heart.
The recorder is there to record the words and focus the eyes on the players’ attitudes, but something Hardik said caught my attention: let go of the fear of failure and not get hung up on the results. Was he saying this because India had won? Would he have felt the same way if India hadn’t won?
“I said so,” Hardik replied. “There were three balls left and I told the boys, ‘It’s OK if we lose the match’. I told them I’m proud of the way we fought in the match. We are a team that has worked hard individually, as a team and collectively. So even if we had lost, I would have smiled and said we gave it our all and that the day was just good.”
“Somewhere along the line, I accepted the fact that in this sport there are good and bad times. The more good times, the better, but I also want to cherish the bad times because I can learn a lot from my failures.”
The truth is, this is how sports are supposed to work. This is how you perform at your best. But like George Costanza in the Seinfeld episode “The Deal,” I wanted to say, “Where do you live? Here? On this planet? That’s not possible. You can’t do that.”
“For thousands of years, people have been trying to have both, so all of a sudden you come along and you’re trying to do it. Where does that self-esteem come from? Nobody can do that. It’s impossible.”
A lot of people have tried to strike that balance and failed. You can’t do that in this sport. You have to care a ton and still play like you don’t care. Only the greatest reach that nirvana.
Sure enough, Hardik’s injury resurfaced, preventing the only man in India who could do what he did from performing to his full potential. During last year’s incredible ODI World Cup campaign, he was injured again while trying to defend his own delivery. The details are not important now and one day they will have their say, but something happened at Mumbai Indians and suddenly no one wanted to touch Hardik.
He was booed wherever he went and for a while he became a spectator athlete. The ball was not coming out of his hands well. India bowling coach Paras Muhambuly said the team management continued to monitor him remotely and Hardik continued to follow the process of workload, intensity and net practice. His luck was bound to change at some point, Muhambuly said.
That T20 World Cup changed everything. He was part of a team that excelled in conditions. He didn’t have to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. The wickets started coming, first against Ireland and then Pakistan. The runs came when they were needed. He went into the final looking like a Tamil movie hero: sharp cut, moustache and no stubble.
The match was almost over but his MI teammate Jasprit Bumrah kept it going till Hardik returned. He started with a slow ball and was lucky to catch the edge of the dangerous Heinrich Klaassen. After that he tightened up. Cut into the pitch. Nothing flashy. Didn’t try to turn it around like Bumrah did. He kept the match going for Bumrah as Bumrah had done for him.
In the 20th over, Bumrah and Arshdeep left Hardik with a defensive task. He had only managed 14 runs and two wickets in the previous four overs, but David Miller was still there. In the last over, anything could happen, especially if the first ball flew. The plan was not to bowl the ball in Miller’s arc. Hardik had deliberately started taking his time before starting to make a run. The line was right but the length was horribly wrong.
Miller hit a full toss blindfolded for a six, the final over of the World Cup final that South Africa had pocketed four overs earlier. It wasn’t the best hit, but the bat can send the ball a long way these days. This one also looked like it would go a long way, but another of Hardik’s MI teammates, Suryakumar Yadav, took a historic catch. These replays may be debated forever. Did Suryakumar’s boot just barely touch the boundary? Brown marks in the outfield suggest that the boundary triangle may not have been returned to its original position after an earlier stoppage.
Hardik was on the brink of humiliation yet again. Imagine the tide turning again. The margin was huge. But in the end, Hardik finished the match. What it means to be part of a winning group in sport was shown by Rohit kissing Hardik on the cheek.
Speaking to Star Sports, a tearful Hardik finally said after two failed attempts: “I wanted those six months, my six months. I didn’t even understand what had happened to me. I had a lot of control. I wanted to cry but I didn’t. I didn’t want to give satisfaction to those who were content with my misery. And I never will.”
“Look at fate. I had a chance to do this in the last over. I never could have imagined this. I’m speechless.”
The biggest lesson to be learnt from all this is that no emotion is ever final until you retire from cricket. Even after you retire as a player, you can still win your first World Cup like Rahul Dravid did. You just have to stay fit, recharge and try again. And if you can, live to see the results and tell the tale.
Siddharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo.