Hardik Pandya made his debut for Team India this year on Wednesday (January 22) when he played the Men in Blue against England in the first T20I at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
The Indian all-rounder played a key role as India thrashed England by seven wickets to take the series lead. Asked to bat first, England were bowled out for a modest total of 132 runs. They were 74/4 at the end of the 10th over and were looking to post a challenging total of 150-plus.
However, India’s bowlers did not allow England to finish their innings strongly and restricted them to a modest total. Captain Jos Buttler was the lone batsman for England, scoring 68 runs off 44 balls with eight fours and a couple of sixes.
Apart from Buttler, no other England player could even reach the 20-run mark. For India, Varun Chakravarthy was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3 wickets for 4 for 23 runs. On the other hand, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel bagged two wickets each.
Also read: Look: 4, 4, 6, 4, 4! Sanju Samson destroys Gus Atkinson in the 1st T20I at Eden Gardens
With the bat, India chased down the total very easily. The hosts crossed the finish line for the 14th time, losing only 3 wickets. Opener Abhishek Sharma played with the bat, smashing just 34 balls for 79 runs with the help of 5 fours and 8 sixes. Sanju Samson also got a start but he didn’t last long and departed for 26 runs.
Hardik Pandya ahead of Jasprit Bumrah:
In the first T20I against England, two wickets helped Hardik Pandya move past Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the list of highest run-scorers by Indians in the shortest format of the game.
Hardik Pandya was fifth on the list with 89 goals before the start of the game. He was level with Bumrah in wickets and one wicket shy of Bhuvneshwar’s tally. The two wickets took his T20I tally to 91, taking him ahead of Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah.
He is now third in the overall list behind Yuzvendra Chahal and Arshdeep. Meanwhile, Arshdeep broke Chahal’s record in the same game to become India’s all-time leading wicket-taker in T20Is. The left-arm pacer now has 97 wickets, one more than Chahal.
