Who is India’s most valuable player in T20Is?
For a while in his career, it seemed like he craved attention, without knowing what it was in him that he wanted everyone to look at. Consequently, he got the attention but not the engagement. But in recent times, he has made it clear to himself and everyone that he wants the attention to be on his cricket – and now he has everyone hypnotically hooked.
The world’s best all-rounder
The world’s best all-rounder, at the moment, raved on the night of beating Pakistan with a stunning performance with the bat and the ball. With the bat, the careful, deliberate positioning of the body and the areas he accesses, and the eerie calmness, right till the end.
Each has its own impact, some he realizes, some unconscious, but what I feel is that all three have matured him. He didn’t want to feel negative again after that television show. He "realized" all he wanted was a stable, happy family after marriage, and the death of his father, who he was very close to, must have matured him to become an adult in many ways. The coach told this newspaper that the old (childishness) has changed. The fourth, unsaid, episode, which was a result of all the three, was the captaincy, which further pushed the man towards greater self-awareness and the need to be calmer and in control of his emotions.
Gujarat Titans (GT)
"Coach, you will not hear any negative things about me after this," Jitendra Singh recalled telling him not long after the coffee controversy.
The next day was Uttarayan, the famous kite festival in January. Everything shuts down, and thousands of Gujarati heads crane up to stare at the colourful kites.
He was a very emotional boy. Don’t go by his dress and chains and the style icon he seems to be.
At times, he lets people know it, too. He hit the match-winning six, accepted a bow from looked up at the dressing room and signalled a "telephone ring" kind of wiggle. He had just moved outside leg stump and tried to pierce the off side but couldn’t beat the infield.
The coach, Jitendra, who has known him since he was very young, smiles when that image is put across.
Once mocked, laughed at, and dropped from the team, has bounced back in remarkable fashion. The best way to answer is not to answer, as said in a video put up by Gujarat Titans at the end.
When Hardik steps into a full-time captaincy role,
In 2022, when Hardik struck gold in his debut season as captain in the Indian Premier League, he led India to a 2-0 series win against Ireland, and now on Sunday, in the absence of regular captain Rohit, he led India to a thumping 88-run win on the back of a superb performance by their spinners in Lauderhill, Florida, to complete a 4-1 series win.
In the post-match presentation, who led the Gujarat Titans to the title in the side's and his debut season earlier this year, admits that he is open to the full-time captaincy role. In a media interaction ahead of the auction in February, he spoke about how he wants to create his own legacy on his own terms at a new franchise.
India have used seven captains across the three formats this year and with Rohit Sharma’s problems with injury and his age, might become a better candidate to lead India, at least in the white ball format. It sounded like too much of a stretch coming from someone who, by his own admission, had led only at the Under-16 level. But captaining the Gujarat Titans to the title in their debut season was tough.
The old-timers could sense a Sharma moment. But do not leave it too late.
The Indian chase of 148 didn’t start too well. It took just two balls into the Indian innings for debutant Shah to strike—the fast, length ball that held the line a trifle, hustling K L Rahul into an undecided half-defensive thrust, and the split-second dilemma that saw the ball brush his inside edge and crash onto the stumps.
Earlier, it was the other half’s turn to celebrate. After Rahul walked back, India.
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