From booed to beloved: Hardik Pandya’s insane comeback story

The year 2024 is like a roller coaster in the life of the Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya whether it’s his cricket career or personal life. He faced the next level of trolling from the fans of his own country in the IPL 2024 for his inconsistent performance from both bat and ball which gave some sections of society a reason to boo him and troll online.
However, Pandya’s strong belief in himself mental toughness, and his courage is proof of his performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. He made a tremendous comeback shutting the mouth of all the trollers through his spectacular performance.

TALE OF TWO FRANCHISES

The last two years of Pandya’s IPL journey is nothing less than a film, it was full of unexpected turns and full of drama. From leading Gujarat Titans to the trophy in the first year of the team in the tournament to returning back to his former franchise Mumbai Indians.

In the year 2022, due to his inconsistent form Mumbai Indians released him from the team. This led to his entry into the newly formed team Gujarat Titans as the skipper. Here, he got a fresh start which even led to the success of the team, impressed with both bat and ball and through his captaincy skills. As a captain, Pandya helped his young team develop a winning mindset and sense of unity which helped them to win the IPL trophy in the first year of the team.

After his brilliant performance in 2022, Pandya’s return to Mumbai Indians was in the headlines all over the cricket world. The Mumbai Indians brought back Pandya to the team replacing Rohit Sharma as the captain thinking for the future of the team, but fans didn’t like this decision of the franchise and with that Hardik came in the eyes of trollers.

Leading Mumbai Indians was a dream come true for him but his homecoming wasn’t smooth as anticipated. The team’s batting and bowling were inconsistent in the whole season and Pandya’s individual game also didn’t impress.

IPL 2024: A CONTROVERSIAL TOURNAMENT FOR PANDYA

The IPL 2024 could be one of the best tournaments in the life of Hardik but it turned out to be dangerous for Hardik because fans were not happy with him becoming the captain of five-time champion team Mumbai Indians, a team that Rohit Sharma led from the past 11 years. People were not ready to accept him as the captain of the team and that led to a lot of hate toward him. Both fans and experts raised questions on whether he would be able to handle the pressure that comes up with being the captain of such a rich heritage team.

A SEASON OF DISAPPOINTMENT
Due the next level of trolling and booing from the audience, somehow affected Pandya’s performance on the field and in his captaincy style too. Mumbai Indians who is always known for their stunning approach and performance were failed to perform in the IPL 2024. Neither their batting nor bowling didn’t come in that potential that used to come in the last years. While having such a big star like Jasprit Bumrah in the team, their bowling was not up to the mark, Pandya only bowled the least overs because of his health issues.
Mumbai Indians managed to win only 4 games out of 14 which gave chance to the trollers to raise questions on his captaincy. Former cricket players questioned his choice in the strategies made by him. With such poor performance of the team, Pandya became the target of everyone on the social media platforms and became the target of online bullying, people started making memes about his captaincy decisions and even his personal life.

HARDIK PANDYA IPL 2024 PERFORMANCE

Batting Stats

YEAR	MATCHES	RUNS	AVERAGE	STRIKE RATE	100	50	4s	6s
2024	14	216	18.00	143.05	0	0	17	11

 

Bowling Stats

YEAR	MATCHES	RUNS	WICKETS	AVERAGE	ECONOMY
2024	14	387	11	35.18	10.75

 

There were some mistakes that was made by Pandya in his captaincy in IPL 2024. This includes sending Tim David ahead of him when MI needed 40 runs off 26 balls in their opening match, not sending Jasprit Bumrah to bowl when SRH was heading toward a record-breaking score, bowling the last over against CSK when MS Dhoni came to bat, and blaming Tilak Verma for the loss to Delhi Capitals. It was also seen that bowlers were rushing to Rohit and Bumrah for advice instead of the skipper himself. Not only this he asked Rohit to field near the boundary rope during Mumbai Indians 6 run defeat against Gujarat Titans and Rohit looked surprised to see this decision of Pandya

PANDYA’S JOURNEY FROM BEING THE VILLAIN TO THE HERO OF THE TEAM

The best thing about the time is that it never remains the same it changes with every span of time and the same thing happened with the India all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Just a few months back many sections of the society trolled him for his decision-making and his performance in the IPL 2024. But now that same section of society is praising him for his performance in the T20 World Cup 2024.

A separate Hardik Pandya emerged in the T20 World Cup 2024. It seems that he was ready to shut the mouths of all the trollers and the former players who questioned him for his performance.

PANDYA PERFORMANCE IN THE T20 WORLD CUP 2024

In the opening match of the campaign against Ireland, he showed his bowling power picking up three wickets giving 27 runs and in the most awaited match of the World Cup, India vs Pakistan he took 2 wickets in 4 overs giving 2 wickets.

In the match played against the USA at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, he took 2 wickets giving just 14 runs in 4 overs.

In the first match of Super 8 against Afghanistan, although he wasn’t able to do nothing much with the ball he showed magic with his bat scoring 32 runs off 24 balls, smashing 3 fours and 2 sixes. Pandya is one of the players of the team India we can say when needed the most always gives his best the same thing happened in the second match of the Super 8 against Bangladesh at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium when the top batting order collapsed at 108/4, then Hardik Pandya came to the rescue for the team joined Shivam Dube. In this CSK’s star player Shivam Dube also played a great impact scoring 34 runs off 24 balls. Hardik scored 50 runs off just 27 balls, smashing 4 fours and 3 sixes, and with the ball he took 1 wicket.

Pandya in total scored 144 runs in 6 innings and took 11 wickets in 8 innings in the T20 World Cup 2024.

Pandya did an excellent job with this performance and once again he became the favourite of everyone. There’s nothing wrong in saying that he is the man for big moments.

Hope with his brilliant performances he will lead Team India further to big levels of achievements in the upcoming tournaments.