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‘I was kind of getting the sense or vibe that a lot of things came on me’

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‘I was kind of getting the sense or vibe that a lot of things came on me’

India all-rounder Hardik Pandya on Monday revealed how he is “pushing” the bowling ball in the second match of the 2021 T20 World Cup despite being picked as a batsman. Looking back on the match, he admitted he felt the pressure on him after criticising India for a lack of sixth bowling options after a 1o-wicket loss to Pakistan in the match opener.

India has never lost to Pakistan in a World Cup match. The same result is expected for the Dubai opener of the 2021 T20 World Cup, with India set to be the pre-match favourites. But Pakistan wrote a stunning 10-run win in an unbeaten start between captains Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan to write their first victory over India. One of India’s main concerns in that game was their lack of bowling depth. With no sixth bowling option, skipper Virat Kohli can only rotate between the other five options.

Speaking on Backstage with Boria, Hardik clarified that he was picked a batsman in the squad and not as an all-rounder before admitting that he felt some vibe that “everything was thrown at” him. He further added that despite not being able to and not being advised to, he pushed himself to bowl in the second game for the team.

“I have a feeling or feeling that a lot of things are happening to me. Obviously it’s good. I play the sport and I get it…but where we were and when I went, I felt it Everything was on me all the time, everything was thrown at me. I didn’t bowl, yes, but I was drafted into the team as a batsman. I bowled really hard in the first game, which was obviously something I did No. I got hit in the first game, the second game when I retreated, I shouldn’t have gone. I pushed my team but ended up having a setback and as you said it happened, “He said.

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Hardick has long suffered from a back injury that will keep him playing as a hitter for most of 2021. He even played only as a batsman in the Mumbai Indians’ IPL 2021 campaign. However, he bowled for India in two T20 World Cup matches against Afghanistan and New Zealand, conceding 40 runs without a wicket.

Hardik was undrafted in the ensuing India series as he continued to recover from injury. However, the Baroda-based player is eager to make a comeback as an all-rounder in IPL 2022.

“I want to be an all-rounder. If things go bad, I don’t know, but my preparation is all about playing as an all-rounder. I feel good, I feel strong, and eventually, time will tell. what,” he added.

Complete Newsd Source : Hindustan Times

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Cricket

KL Rahul dangerously close to Laxman territory; to be perished for Sarfaraz Khan and Shubman Gill

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KL Rahul dangerously close to Laxman territory; to be perished for Sarfaraz Khan and Shubman Gill

To accommodate both Sarfaraz and Gill and stick with their five-bowler formula, a batter from the Bengaluru Test must make way. Ergo Rahul and the predicted axe

VVS Laxman went through the first half of his illustrious 15-and-a-half-year international career with the proverbial axe hanging over him. Despite his magical stroke-play and a well-founded reputation for rallying the lower order to bat above itself, he was forever the first name that sprang to the decision-makers’ minds when they had to drop someone to accommodate someone else. It wasn’t until the second half of his stint with the national team that he had ‘job security’, which automatically manifested itself in an array of glorious, match-turning knocks and earmarked him as one for a crisis.

KL Rahul is now dangerously close to approaching the Laxman territory, though at least in this instance, a case can be made out, perhaps, for why he often seems to be playing for his place. Almost a decade after his Test debut in Australia in December 2014, he has yet to nail down a permanent spot, a result of glaring inconsistency and repeated dalliances with injuries that have left him with a modest average of 33.87 from 53 Test appearances.

Unlike Laxman, who was thrust to the opener’s position for three years from 1997, successive team managements have worked overtime to create space for Rahul. He started off in the middle order in Melbourne against Australia, opened in the next Test in Sydney when he made a sparkling century, continued in that position for a good nine years – around the large pockets when either injuries or lack of form relegated him to the sidelines – and now seems to have found his calling in the middle order, where he was tried out in an almost last throw of the dice in South Africa last December.

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In his limited time at the No. 6 position, Rahul has been a revelation. On a spiteful surface in Centurion in his first innings back in the middle order, the classy right-hander made a marvellous 101 – Virat Kohli’s 38 was the next highest score – in India’s 245 all out. Two Tests later, against England in Hyderabad, he waltzed to 86 of the best until a hamstring strain kept him out of the last four Tests.

On his comeback last month against Bangladesh, Rahul showed why he is rated so highly, and therefore why he so frustrates when he chooses to shackle himself mentally, with uninhibited shot-making when India were pressing for a declaration (Chennai) and looking to make up for lost time with a frenetic batting approach (Kanpur) in the two Tests. Kanpur was especially mesmeric, 68 flowing off his bat in a mere 43 deliveries. It was the best of Rahul.

Axe hangs over Rahul’s head for India vs New Zealand 2nd Test

And yet here we are, two innings later, wondering whether he will, or should, feature in the playing XI in Pune, where India take on New Zealand in a must-win second Test from Thursday.

Shubman Gill, him of three centuries in his last six Tests, missed the Bengaluru defeat to the Kiwis with a stiff neck. Replacement batter Sarfaraz Khan made the most of own good fortune with a delectable 150, which makes it near impossible to drop him now that Gill is fully fit. To accommodate both Sarfaraz and Gill and stick with their five-bowler formula which has worked beautifully in the last few years, a batter from the Bengaluru Test must make way. Ergo Rahul and the predicted axe.

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One of the few men to have led India in all three formats internationally, Rahul didn’t help his cause with scores of 0 and 12 at his home ground, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. In the first innings, he was strangled down leg-side by William O’Rourke while in the second, he received a peach from the same paceman operating with the second new ball and was again caught behind. Rahul was one of 11 failures in India’s first-innings 46 and one of seven wickets to fall in 93 deliveries to the second new cherry, but failures past and the logjam created by Gill’s availability have combined to identify him as the most susceptible to the axe.

It’s a cross impossible to bear, but also impossible to ignore just because it is so heavy, so overarching. Rahul is beyond gifted and makes batting appear oh-so-simple, but his struggles to embrace sustained run-making can’t be wished away. He is the eternal team man, much like his celebrated namesake also from Karnataka – both kept wickets admirably in 50-over World Cups 21 years apart, both made attractive and impactful runs during the tournament and both tasted bitter defeat at the hands of Australia in the final – but ‘eternal team man’ can sometimes be an euphemism for the ‘most dispensable’ and Rahul can be excused for thinking that those two lines have blurred beyond repair. Of course, if he is brutally honest to himself, he will acknowledge at least to himself that he too must bear culpability for the blurring of the lines.

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