Hardik Pandya, born on October 11, 1993, in Surat, Gujarat, is an Indian cricketer who also represents Baroda in Domestic Cricket and the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler and is the prominent batting All-Rounder of the side.

His favorite cricketers are Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Harbhajan Singh and his favorite shot is the Straight drive. His hobbies are traveling, listening to music, and also spending time with his dogs. His nicknames are “Hairy”, “Kung fu Pandya” and “Rockstar”.

He bats in the lower middle order in all forms of the game and is currently the number one fast bowling all-rounder for India who lends the perfect balance to the playing eleven. He is also renowned for his exceptional fielding skills.

Hardik Pandya is also seen by experts and fans alike as the heir apparent to the Great Kapil Dev in the coming years.

Family

Hardik Pandya is the second and the younger son of Himanshu and Nalini Pandya. His elder brother is fellow Indian and Mumbai Indians cricketer Krunal Pandya.

He was engaged to Serbian Actress and Model, Natasa Stankovic, on January 1, 2020, and married her on June 1, 2020. On 30th July 2020, they gave birth to their first and only child Agastya Pandya.

Hardik’s father ran a small car finance business in Surat before they shifted to Vadodara when Hardik was five to facilitate him with better cricket training facilities. He enrolled both Hardik and Krunal Pandya into Kiran More’s cricket academy in Vadodara. 

During his childhood, Pandya’s father would take him to matches played at Baroda that helped Hardik develop an interest in Cricket. However, Hardik faced a lot of childhood difficulties as his father thrice suffered from Heart attacks and had to quit his job. Unfortunately, his father died of Cardiac arrest on January 16, 2021.

Hardik did his schooling until ninth-grade post which he dropped out to entirely focus on becoming a cricketer.

Early age cricket and Under 19 Cricket World cup

Hardik Pandya started a leg spinner until the age of 18 before turning into a fast bowler upon the insistence of his Baroda Coach Sanath Kumar. 

It is understood that in one of the local league matches in Baroda, when his team was a pace bowler short, upon the insistence of former Indian Cricketer Kiran More, Hardik accepted the task of playing as a pacer. Much to the surprise of everyone, Hardik picked up 7 wickets in the next match as a pacer post which he permanently switched his bowling style to Fast Medium.

Hardik has been playing for Baroda since 2013, making his debut against Mumbai at the age of 20, and played a vital role in them winning the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy in the 2013-2014 season. In 9 matches, Pandya scored 219 runs and picked up 11 wickets at an economy of fewer than 6 runs per over with the highest score of 82* and best bowling innings of 3-7.

In 2015, John Wright, the coach of the Mumbai Indians, selected Hardik Pandya at the base price of 10 Lakhs seeing tremendous potential in him.  In that season, Hardik’s major contribution came in a critical match against the Chennai Super Kings where he pummeled a quick 21 of 8 balls along with 3 catches to help his side beat Chennai and also grabbing his first Man of the Match award in the process.

Later in the tournament, in a must-win match against Kolkata, he scored 61 of 31 balls to help Mumbai qualify for the Playoffs while also earning his second man of the match award of the tournament. He played a key role in Mumbai winning the 2015 IPL.  Hardik then carried on his good start in the T20 arena with a magnificent unbeaten 86 against Vidarbha in the 2016 Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy where he helped Baroda reach the finals of the tournament.

Despite being one of the few Indian cricketers without any Under 19 World cup Exposure, Hardik Pandya was fast-tracked into the Indian cricket team for the T20’s against Australia in January 2016.

Debut in Indian Cricket Team

Hardik Pandya made his international debut in the T20 series in Australia on January 27, 2016.

It was the first of 3 T20’s that followed the ODI series and Hardik made a horrendous start as he bowled 5 Wides in his very first over and conceded 19 runs. However, showing nerves of steel for a debutant, Hardik bounced back picking up 2 wickets in his next couple of overs that included the wicket of the dangerous Chris Lynn as his maiden international wicket.

He also played in the next couple of t20’s and accounted for Chris Lynn’s wicket again in the second T20. India ended up winning the series 3-0 over Australia.

Hardik made his ODI debut later in the year against New Zealand in October and became one of only four Indian players to win a Man of the Match award on debut as he picked up 3 vital wickets including that of New Zealand opener Martin Guptill.

Hardik also made 36 of 32 in the 2nd ODI which was his first ODI innings as a batsman and had a decent debut series where he provided the side with the needed All round balance.

Hardik was named in the Indian squad for the home test series against England later in 2016 but an injury during training meant he had to be left out. He was then named in the squad for the Sri Lankan tour in July 2017 and made his test debut in the first Test at Galle. In his very first innings with the bat, he made a 50 of just 49 deliveries ensuring India accelerated towards 600 in their first innings that eventually ended with India winning the test by 304 runs. It was considered a sign of things to come in the future given the fearlessness displayed by Hardik in his very first test outing.

Hardik made his debut in all three formats between January 2016 and July 2017 and was fast making strides with his solid performances with bat and ball while also providing the team with the perfect balance.

Hardik had a solid IPL in 2017 where he scored a total of 250 runs at a strike rate of 156 and also grabbing 6 wickets. He was also named in the ODI eleven of the year for 2017 by Cricinfo.

Breakthrough Inning

Hardik Pandya became a regular member of the Indian team in 2017 and he made numerous key contributions between 2016 and mid of 2017.

Some of the noteworthy ones included his Man of the match performance on his ODI debut, crucial cameos in the Asia cup of 2016 in which he also picked up 8-3 against Pakistan.

His most famous moment during that period was the final over against Bangladesh in the World T20 2016 where he defended 2 of the last 3 balls by picking up 2 wickets in 2 balls and bowling a dot ball on the final ball to propel India to a one-run win.

However, the innings that made the entire world take notice of Hardik Pandya as an up-and-coming Superstar came in the finals of the Champions trophy 2017 against Pakistan.

Put into bat, Pakistan compiled a mammoth 338-4 in their 50 overs with only Hardik having respectable bowling figures of 53-1 in his 10 overs. In reply, India stumbled to 54-5 losing all their big guns when Hardik entered and smashed a fearsome 76 of 43 balls that included 6 sixes as he threatened to single-handedly turn the match on its head.

Unfortunately, he was run out and that ended India’s hopes of winning the title. But this was his breakthrough innings in a big match with the team in dire straits against arch-rivals Pakistan. Hardik’s display of fearlessness combined with brutal power-hitting made the cricketing world pause and take notice of this youngster as a potential Match winner in the future.

He also made his breakthrough contribution in test cricket during the first test against South Africa in 2018 at Cape town when he smashed a magnificent counter-attacking 93 coming in at 76-5 against the likes of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada on a seaming wicket.

Future in Cricket

Hardik Pandya is now a permanent member of the Indian limited-over squads and only his fitness holds him back from a permanent spot In the Indian test team. He is also a vital cog for the Mumbai Indians and has been part of 4 of their 5 IPL victories between 2015 and 2020.

Having has made numerous match-winning and match-defining contributions across formats providing the team with the perfect balance that allows fielding 6 frontline batsmen and 4 frontline bowlers due to his multi-dimensional potential. It is believed Hardik will play a key role in India continuing to dominate World Cricket in all formats.

He is also entrusted as the heir apparent to MS Dhoni in the role of “Finisher” as he has the power in combination with the skill and the composure to consistently perform arguably the hardest role of finishing matches for the team.

Hardik Pandya is a rare commodity in World Cricket, let alone Indian Cricket, as a lower-order batsman that consistently bowls at 140 KM/Hr. He is seen as one of the Top 2 pace bowling all-rounders alongside Ben Stokes. Hopefully, he will also be the “Next Kapil Dev” for India in the future by winning matches with both and ball in all formats of the game.