What stands Hardik Pandya apart is how keen he is to learn: Gary Kirsten

Gujarat Titans batting coach and mentor Gary Kirsten showered praise on the team’s captain Hardik Pandya. Former South African opener said Pandya was very keen to learn as a leader in the recently concluded Tata IPL 2022 and that’s what sets him apart from other players.

Kirsten also said that leadership also comes naturally to the all-rounder. Pandya led Gujarat Titans to glory in their maiden season of the tournament as led from the front.

Pandya scored 487 runs in 15 matches at an impressive average of 44.27 and scored his runs at a strike rate of 131.27 in Tata IPL 2022 and thus played a huge role in the success of his team.

Furthermore, Pandya returned with impressive figures of 3-17 in the all-important final against Rajasthan Royals. The right-arm pacer went to take crucial wickets of Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and Shimron Hetmyer – which constitute the fulcrum of RR’s batting.

Moreover, Pandya scored an imperative knock of 34 runs off 30 balls in the run-chase of 131 runs and added 63 runs with opening batter Shubman Gill after GT lost two early wickets.

Speaking to TOI, Gary Kirsten said: “I’ve been impressed with Hardik Pandya. Not having known him well earlier, I’ve got a view on him now that he’s this cricketer who just plays instinctively and takes the game on. He engages in a lot of cricket conversations and wants to learn, wants to get better and improve and understand his players.”

“What stands him apart is how keen he is to learn. He is one of those players. And we’ve seen how leadership has come so naturally to him. He is an impact-player who can win games for you and to have someone that could do it with bat and ball, especially in a format as short and unpredictable as this one, is special.”

Kirsten, who led India to World Cup glory in 2011, added they wanted to focus on trying to understand new combinations. All the GT players were able to deliver the goods when they had the opportunity.

​​”As a new franchise, our focus was in trying to understand combinations, building a team, making sure that we do what we can to keep improving with each game and that’s how we went about. We started the tournament on a good note and that was nice because it took a bit of pressure off early on.”

Gujarat Titans were able to come up with a collective effort and Hardik Pandya played a huge role in getting the best out of his players.