The flamboyant Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya outplayed England with his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket and then urged pundits such as Michael Holding to evaluate him on his own performances after the West Indies great said he was “nowhere near” becoming the “next Kapil Dev”.
Hardik made the most of the swing-friendly conditions in Nottingham as he took five for 28 and made the English team collapse to 161 all out at Trent Bridge on Sunday. The Indian batsmen then took advantage of the lead as India’s score was 124 for two at stumps in their second innings, they are now having a commanding lead of 292 runs on just the second day of the third Test.
During the post-day press conference, Pandya said, “I have never wanted to be Kapil Dev. Let me be Hardik Pandya, I am good at being Hardik Pandya, I played 41 ODIS and 10 Tests being Hardik Pandya, not Kapil Dev.”
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Prior to this match, the 24-year-old Pandya was averaging 32 with the bat and 39 with the ball in Test cricket, which led Holding to suggest India needed to “find someone who can contribute a lot more to this team right now”.
Holding expressed his thoughts during an interview with the ESPNcricinfo website on Thursday in which he insisted Pandya was a long way from becoming a world-class all-rounder in the mold of India great Kapil.
Before the second Test at Lord’s last week, which India lost by the huge margin of an innings and 159 runs to fall 2-0 behind in this five-match series, Pandya didn’t get a single wicket in last four Test matches. Recalling the same, Holding said, “I don’t think he does a lot with the ball. I heard a mention, when I was working in South Africa: ‘he is the next Kapil Dev’. I ain’t going to tell anybody he’s not going to be the next Kapil Dev, but he is nowhere near there yet.”
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But having proven his worth at Trent Bridge, significantly as a fourth seamer in an Indian bowling attack following the return of fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah from injury, Pandya said he had no interest in being compared to great players of the past. He explained, “They (the players of Holding’s generation) have created their era, let me be Hardik Pandya, let’s stop comparing me with anyone. My team is happy with me. Nothing else matters.”
England was bowled out in a session on Sunday despite an opening stand of 54. Having gone nearly 80 years without losing all 10 wickets in a Test session from 1938 to October 2016, Sunday’s slump was the third time it had happened to them in 22 months and the two of them came this year itself. when they bundled out of 58 against New Zealand earlier this year.
