IPL 2022 Final: 'High-Profile Player But Incredibly Humble' - Gary Kirsten Lauds Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya led Gujarat Titans to their maiden IPL title in their very first season in 2022. The Titans were one of the two new franchises to be added to the IPL. He also became the fourth Indian captain to win an IPL title after MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir. Personally, this was Hardik’s best IPL season with him scoring 487 runs and picking up 8 wickets.

The entire Gujarat Titans management including the players and the coaching staff was over the moon with the side beating the Rajasthan Royals in the final. Team mentor Gary Kirsten who worked closely with Hardik Pandya over the last two months had a special word of praise for the Gujarat skipper.

Hardik Pandya Came In And Played With Responsibility: Gary Kirsten

“He has been fantastic, I’ve looked working with him. He’s a high-profile player in India but he’s incredibly humble, wanting to learn as a leader and engage with his players which I think is really, really important. He’s tried to help the youngsters, he’s come in and played a different responsibility,” he told Star Sports.

He then had a word on his experience of coaching a brand new team in the IPL. Kirsten had coached Delhi Daredevils and the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL before joining GT.

“You never stop learning as a coach, every IPL is a learning experience, that’s what I enjoy. I’ve loved working with Ashish (Nehra), he’s really strong tactically – trying to put a game plan together on the fly is not easy” Kirsten added.

The former South African opener also had a word on the entire team and the good job the management did in picking them up in the mega auction. He first spoke about the depth of the side.

“You’re looking for good balance, good depth in the auction but most importantly you’re looking for players who can do different roles, the one thing we’ve learnt with Ashish is finding guys who were versatile, and at 4, 5 and 6 – we’ve got that”.

“We all got energy out of it, we’ve had a great bowling attack – through the end we went a bowler strong and a batter light, but we were always confident, just to get a good balance in the team,” Kirsten then said about the bowling attack of the Titans to conclude his interaction.

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