In the last few years India have found out that while winning the trophy is tough, retaining the crown is a lot tougher. One can say that India got lucky with the draw in the Champions trophy 2017 as they didn't play Australia, New Zealand and England but it did fall short in the final encounter. Rather than pointing the negatives out, it's important to acknowledge the way India played in crunch situations. The way they outplayed South Africa and Bangladesh after the loss to Sri Lanka was a good indicator of how good this team can be.
The newly elected captain, Virat Kohli has showed a lot of faith in Hardik Pandya and he justified it in the final. It was only the third time Pandya finished his quota of 10 overs in his young ODI career and the way he batted showed he's the team's cleanest hitter after MS. He has hit more sixes than any other batsman in the tournament despite playing only a handful of deliveries. While his bowling still needs some work to be done (must bowl a lot fuller), his batting looks ready to take over the mantle of finishing from Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni.
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After seeing Pandya hitting the ball so cleanly in the final of Champions Trophy, former Indian wicket-keeper, Kiran More said, “He has worked on his head position a lot and now he has the right balance when he plays a shot. He has that capacity of hitting the ball, picking the line very quickly.”
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He was the only batsman who looked quite comfortable in front of Pakistani pacers who troubled every other batsman. In his short cameo of 76 runs off just 43 balls raised some hopes in a dead match. After nourishing his game in this fashion Pandya gave credit to the seniors players like Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh by seeking their valuable advices. Kohli said, “It is very hard to find a guy who can almost touch 140kmph and who strikes the way he strikes the ball and can bat through the innings as well.”
Keeping in mind the recent performances of Pandya, the Windies tour can prove a turning point of his career. Knowing the fact that India will not have the services of MSD for much longer time now, it is necessary to groom a talent like Hardik Pandya to fill that gap which will be left after MSD.
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