Hardik creates double bluff, becomes first Indian player to do so in T20I

Hardik Pandya IND vs ENG: Indian cricket team’s star all-rounder Hardik Pandya made a splash with both bat and ball in the first match of the three-match T20 series against England played in Southampton. He also scored his first half-century in T20 International in the same match. He also became the first Indian and the 5th player in the world to score four wickets and 50 runs in a T20 International match for India. He took four wickets for 33 runs in 4 overs. Hardik also played an innings of 51 runs in 33 balls which included 6 fours and a six.

In the bowling, Pandya took three big wickets of England in 6 balls. Hardik Pandya did wonders as soon as he came and after taking a four off the first ball, David Malan (14 balls 21 runs) was clean bowled on the second ball. After this, on the last ball of the same over, he sent the dangerous Liam Livingstone to the pavilion without opening an account. On the first ball of the next over, Hardik got his third success by getting Jason Roy (16 balls 4 runs) caught by Harshal Patel. In the third over, Hardik took his fourth wicket by dismissing Sam Curran.

Players who have scored 4 wickets and 50 runs in T20Is

1. 1. Dwayne Bravo – 66 not out, 4/38 vs India, 2009

1. 1. Mohammad Hafeez – 71 runs, 4/10 vs Zimbabwe, 2011

1. 1. Shane Watson – 59 runs, 4/15 vs England, 2011

1. 1. Shinwari – 61 runs, 4/14 vs Canada, 2012

1. 1. Hardik Pandya – 51 runs, 4/33 vs England, 2022

Hardik’s great comeback after the break

Hardik Pandya was battling with his back problem continuously last year. He decided to go on an indefinite break and focus on his fitness after a poor performance in the T20 World Cup 2021. After this, he returned as the captain of Gujarat Titans in IPL 2022 and made his team victorious with excellent all-round performance and captaincy. Then his impressive performance continued in the T20 series against South Africa.

As a result, he got the captaincy of Team India for the first time in the Ireland series where India showed tremendous game and won the series 2-0. Pandya had scored 487 runs in 15 innings of 15 matches of IPL 2022. He had 4 half-centuries to his name. Apart from this, Hardik also recorded 8 wickets. After this, he scored 117 runs (31, 9, 31, 46) in 4 innings of the South Africa series. Then his batting did not come much against Ireland, yet he played fast innings at a strike rate of about 200 in both the matches.