Hardik Pandya names Mumbai Indians mentor who looked after him like a child

Hardik Pandya’s rags to riches story is an inspiration to all the budding cricketers from rural and small-town parts of India. Over the last couple of years, he had a phenomenal rise in competitive cricket. On his latest interview with Harsha Bhogle, he opened up about his life, cricket career, and much more. During the conversation, he mentioned upon one Mumbai Indians mentor who looked after him like a child.

Hardik Pandya’s rise in the IPL

Hardik burst into scenes when he was picked up by Mumbai Indians in the 2015 auction. The then Mumbai coach John Wright spotted him in a domestic T20 tournament playing aggressively for Baroda against the bowling attack which comprised the likes of Zaheer Khan. He then recommended Hardik’s name to the team owners Akash Ambani and Nita Ambani, who were in charge of the team’s auction procedures. He was picked up for 10 lacks in that auction which saw Indian players like Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik fetching 16cr and 10.5 cr respectively. For young Hardik, this 10lakhs was more than anything. What stood before him was an incredible opportunity to share a dressing room with legends of the game like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and much more.

 The mentor that looked after Hardik Pandya like a child

Hardik recalled that when he came into the Mumbai Indians set up initially, the then team mentor Ricky Ponting looked after him like a child. He added that Ricky used to give him match awareness as per different situations which eventually helped him in his growth as an overall cricketer.

“Ricky Ponting was someone who looked after me the best. He looked after me like a child. I used to feel like he was my father figure there. Ricky taught me so many things, he taught me situations, he taught me mindset, how strong you should be. As a new boy in 2015, I used to sit next to the hoardings. Ricky used to sit down with me and speak about the game. (With all these conversations) I started learning quickly” said Hardik.

Hardik’s Caribbean flavour

Hardik has always mentioned that his cricket and lifestyle resembles more to West Indies culture than to Indian culture. His friendship with Kieron Pollard was formed due to these similar taste between the dashing duo. He added that he didn’t have any specific role model but was always open to advise from any senior cricketers

“I never had one specific role model. I always wanted to learn from the best, different things from different people, and I wanted to combine that in my game – Mahi bhai’s calmness, Virat’s hunger. From 2015, when I made it to the IPL, I always wanted to learn from people. That’s when I realized that Polly is someone who relates to my game” Hardik Pandya said to Harsha Bhogle recently.

Hardik has so far scored 1068 runs at a whopping strike rate of 154.78 and has taken 42 wickets from his 66 IPL matches so far.

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