The flamboyant Indian all-rounder, Hardik Pandya made his T20I debut for India in 2016, however, after conceding 21 runs in his first international over, he almost felt that his international career is going to be over. Pandya made his debut for India against Australia in 2016 in Adelaide, along with now fast bowling sensation Jasprit Bumrah.

Hardik had a horrible start to his India career as he gave away 26 runs off 8 balls. However, Pandya later redeemed himself by picking up scalping a couple of wickets.

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Talking to Harsha Bhogle on Crickuzz, Hardik said, “I conceded 26 runs from my first eight balls and frankly thought my career was over… When I was hit for a huge six, almost 105-110m, I thought I was done. I felt it couldn’t get worse than this and thankfully I managed to snare a couple of wickets.”

Pandya further elaborated that former Indian skipper, MS Dhoni did not say anything to him after a poor start as he wanted him to learn on his own. He also went on to reveal that his relationship with Dhoni and said he has come close to the wicketkeeper-batsman in the past 2 years.

The all-rounder, explained, “I think he (MS Dhoni) wanted me to learn from my own experiences. He is a brother to me. For me, he is family. I have got so close to Mahi bhai in the last two years. I was surprised. I didn’t know he was so open, friendly and joking around.”

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Hardik also picked his all-time playing XI during the interaction and picked MS Dhoni has the skipper of his team.

Here’s Hardik Pandya’s all-time IPL XI:

Chris Gayle, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (C & WK), Hardik Pandya, Sunil Narine, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga.