Hardik Pandya Birthday Special: Lesser-Known Facts About Indian All-Rounder As He Turns 29
Hardik currently plays for the Baroda cricket team in the Indian domestic leagues and captains the recently formed IPL franchise the Gujrat Titans. Pandya led the Gujrat side to win their maiden IPL title in their first staging at the competition and showed the world what he is capable of.
Born in Gujrat, India, on October 11, 1993, Hardik Pandya is one of the best all-rounders the Indian cricket team has ever seen. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler. Being a middle-order batsman for the Indian cricket team he has helped them on many occasions in T20Is and ODIs when the situation got tough. In their time of need, the Indian hard hitter has proved himself with the ball as well. Pandya has taken 42 wickets in 49 T20I matches and 56 in 92 ODI games. ICC T20 World Cup 2022 Top Bowlers: From Hardik Pandya to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 5 Indian Bowlers To Watch Out for in Upcoming Cricket Tournament.
Hardik currently plays for the Baroda cricket team in the Indian domestic leagues and captains the recently formed IPL franchise the Gujrat Titans. Pandya led the Gujrat side to win their maiden IPL title in their first staging at the competition and showed the world what he is capable of.
Hardik Pandya will be celebrating his 29th birthday on October 11, so let's take a look at some of the lesser-known facts about the Indian hard hitter
# Pandya led Gujrat Titans to win their maiden IPL title, making him the first captain to lead a team to the title in its first year after Shane Warne in 2008.
# In 2018, in a T20I match against England, Pandya became the first Indian to take four wickets and score above 30 runs in the same T20I match
# He is also the only Indian to score a half-century and take four wickets in a single T20I match
# In June 2022, Pandya was named captain of the Indian team for the first time for the T20I series against Ireland
# On his ODI debut against New Zeland, he was awarded man of the match
# He has played a total of 62 ODI matches and is one shy of 50 T20I matches for India
# Pandya's 71 runs and four wickets in an ODI match against England made him the first Indian player to score a half-century and take 4 wickets in an ODI since Yuvraj Singh in 2011
# Hardik has only one international century which he scored against Sri Lanka in Test cricket
# He is married to a Serbian dancer, model, and actress Nataša Stanković
He made his national side debut in January 2016, in a T20 match against the Australian side and later in October, he played his first ODI match against New Zealand. Being a lower middle-order batsman Pandya hasn't got the chance to complete his century in limited-over matches.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 11, 2022 08:47 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).