Kane Williamson Speaks On Hardik Pandya's Rapid Rise

Hardik Pandya has come a long way since making his One-Day International debut last year against New Zealand. The allrounder had bagged the Man of the Match award in his very first game. But although he showed a lot of promise in his very first match, he could not sustain the same consistency thereafter.

However, he has turned his career around this year with his outstanding all-round exploits and has now become an integral part of the team in all the formats. After a highly successful Indian Premier League with the bat where he played a big role in Mumbai Indians successful campaign, the 23-year-old marked his arrival on the world stage with a sublime knock in the Champions Trophy final. On an otherwise dismal day for Team India, Pandya was the sole bright spot, as he slammed 76 runs off 43 balls in a heavy 180-run defeat.

His impressive performances saw him getting a place in the Test team for the Sri Lanka series, and he justified the decision by scoring a quickfire fifty on his debut before giving a Man of the Match performance in the third Test, as he scored 108 runs off 96 balls including eight fours and seven sixes.

He further enhanced his reputation with his brilliant performance in the five-match ODI series against Australia, winning his first Man of the Series award for scoring 222 runs and taking 6 wickets.

Pandya is definitely going to be a major threat for New Zealand in the upcoming three-match series, starting October 22 and captain Kane Williamson is well aware of it.

Heaping praise on Pandya, the New Zealand star said: “Certainly in the last year or two, he’s been playing outstandingly well. We saw in the IPL and even in the series against us, he bowled very well. Now, we are seeing him coming along with the bat and making contributions that any team will be pretty happy they have from their allrounder.”

He’s a very vital player for the Indian side in terms of that fast bowling all-rounder that, I suppose, in these conditions that accommodates the spinners so much but to have someone that is the fast bowling allrounder that bowls good pace and hits it out of the park is always exciting to have,” he added.