“He is a very positive person,” says Gujarat Titans coach Ashish Nehra on captain Hardik Pandya about his leadership and maiden IPL triumph

Gujrat Titans won the Indian Premier League in their first season courtesy of an able captain like Hardik Pandya and a coach like Ashish Nehra. They built a great team from scratch and developed that winning mindset last season under Pandya and nehra’s combined leadership.

Recently Nehra in an interview shared a lot of his thoughts on Pandya as a leader and how he used his IPL experience with Mumbai Indians to great effect for the Titans. Nehra remembers how people reacted when the Titans decided to make Hardik Pandya the new captain. But he shared how his rich IPL experience helped him in his maiden captaincy role for the new franchise.

“Hardik Pandya, at times, people see him as a new captain, struggling from injuries. But when it comes to his captaincy, the kind of ability he has with the bat, and the ball, the kind of persona he has, he is a very positive person,” Nehra opened up on Hardik’s captaincy and leadership skills.

Hardik Pandya is a player with a lot of persona and is a very positive person which actually helps him being a leader. Nehra again highlighted how the important role at Mumbai Indians helped the all rounder develop as a captain as he never ran out of ideas as a captain.

“The kind of aura he has shown, if you ask me as a coach, you can look at a player and tell what he is thinking, Hardik Pandya is a very positive guy. I never felt he is a new captain and he doesn’t know what to do. He was a very important part of Mumbai Indians, who have won many titles. He was there. There was no shortage of IPL experience,” Nehra added.

While he was influential as a captain, he also played a very responsible role with the bat as well. But the surprise was when he picked up the ball and produced some very crucial spells for the Titans despite just recovering from a back injury. Pandya picked up three wickets in the finals by just giving away only 17 runs in four overs and restricted the Rajasthan Royals to only 133 helping the Titans get the upper hand in the finals which they later chased down and won their maiden title in their first year.