All eyes were on Hardik Pandya as he came out to bat in the ongoing warm-up game between India and Bangladesh ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The game will be played at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York.
The all-rounder had had a terrible outing in this year’s Indian Premier League. He was named captain of Mumbai Indians for IPL 2024 and should hope to start the journey on a good note. However, the campaign ended disastrously for both him and his team.
Both Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians struggled throughout the tournament and failed to make an impact. Mumbai Indians finished at the bottom of the points table after managing just four wins in 14 games. The Indian all-rounder also failed to make much of an impact with bat and ball.
He scored a modest 216 runs in 14 games. With the ball, he picked up 11 wickets, but had an economy rate of almost 11. He was also attacked by fans throughout the tournament, who booed and jeered him for replacing Rohit Sharma as captain.
As expected, the Indian cricket fraternity was eagerly awaiting Hardik Pandya’s performance in the warm-up match. The all-rounder must have hoped that a change of shirt would change his fortunes and it did. He impressed with the bat in the warm-up game, scoring an unbeaten 40 runs off 23 balls with the help of two fours and four sixes.
The highlight of the innings was the three consecutive sixes he hit off the bowling of Tanvir Islam in the 17th over. By this time, Pandya was hitting 5 runs off 6 balls before breaking the shackles with three sixes in a row.
Watch Hardik Pandya hit three sixes in a row:
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– Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (@Hanji_CricDekho) jyounorthmy 1, 2024
Talking about the game, India finished their innings at 182 for 5 after Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat first. Rishabh Pant was the top scorer for the Men in Blue, scoring 53 off 32 balls before retiring.
