The 27-year-old all-rounder Krunal Pandya had a horrible start in the ongoing Australia tour but the table turned very quickly and he became a hero of the team. After a heroic performance in the third and final T20I of the series, Krunal claimed that his younger brother and another Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya joked on him after his poor performance in the first T20I of the series.
India has started the important Australia tour with the three-match T20I series. While recently debut spin-bowling all-rounder Krunal Pandya was selected in the T20I squad, the 25-year-old pace-bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya has missed the T20I and the upcoming four-match Test series due to a back injury that was suffered in last September during the 2018 Asia Cup in UAE.
Krunal played all the three games of the recently concluded T20I series against the hosts Australia that finished with the 1-1 result. In the first T20I at Brisbane, which was a rain-affected game and India lost by four runs (DLS method), the left-arm spinner Krunal had a huge expensive bowling figure and that was 4-0-55-0. With the bat, he got a little opportunity after coming to bat at the decisive moment and managed to score only 2 runs off 4 balls before getting caught out.
In the second T20I at Melbourne, which was also a rain-affected game and the match was abandoned at the later stage, Krunal made a good comeback and performed tightly with the bowling figure of 4-0-26-1.
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However, his best performance was in the third and final game of the series at Sydney that India won by six wickets with two balls remaining. Despite Australia had a very good start of 68/0, they were restricted to 164/6 at the end of 20 overs and Krunal played a very crucial role for that. He ended with the bowling figure of 4-0-36-4. While India won the game and drew the series, Krunal won the Player of the Match award for his brilliant bowling performance in the game.
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After that brilliant game, Krunal said, “Hardik and I don’t talk much about cricket. He was joking and laughing that I went for so many runs. I also joke when he plays poorly. That’s all we talk about cricket.”
