IPL 2022 Final, GT vs RR: Hardik Pandya was comfortable in his captaincy role, says Sanjay Manjrekar

Hardik Pandya excelled as a skipper in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 after he captained Gujarat Titans (GT) to victory.

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar said that Hardik Pandya didn’t take much time to get used to the captaincy in the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). After he left the Mumbai Indians (MI), Pandya became the skipper of the Gujarat Titans (GT). Prior to the recently-concluded IPL edition, not many people gave GT a chance to win the championship.

However, the Titans clinched the title in their maiden appearance after beating the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by seven wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Manjrekar clearly said that by appointing Pandya as the captain, the Titans took a massive gamble that eventually paid dividends.

Manjrekar believed that Pandya had a huge amount of self-control and didn’t get carried away in the heat of the moment. The veteran also drew Pandya’s parallels to former left-handed batter Vinod Kambli.

“There was no way we were able to make a judgement for sure because we didn’t see him captaining India or at the domestic level, which he doesn’t seem to be interested in. It was another gamble. It’s not because they have gone on to win the title. We saw him being comfortable in the role after five matches in the IPL,” Manjrekar was quoted as saying to ESPNcricinfo.

“Sometimes when the cameras are on, these guys know what demeanour to carry. This guy was genuinely relaxed. Even when he gets all those big wickets, he is able to control himself. During our time, we had a Vinod Kambli, who had a flamboyant nature, but when it came to batting, he was very sensible and measured. The same thing can be said about Hardik,” he added.

Pandya also won the Player of the Match award for picking up three crucial wickets and scoring some vital runs during the Titans’ run-chase.