Hardik Pandya has been the talk of the town since his return to the Indian team after injury. He has gone through several criticisms by the Indian fans and former Indian cricketer for his poor performance in the 17th Edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), where he was replaced as the captain for Mumbai Indians franchise on the place of Indian captain Rohit Sharma for the 2024 edition. However, despite not performing well in the IPL, he was picked up in the Indian team for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup based on his reputation as the biggest match-winner for the Indian team. On even this, Hardik was criticised and booed by a lot of cricket fans. But he didn't utter a word on this and kept waiting for the right time, which he got in the 9th edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, where he played a crucial role in ending the title drought, which Men in Blue were facing from the last 17 years in the shorter format of the game.

The star all-rounder performed brilliantly in the tournament and finished with 144 runs in 8 games with an average of 48 and a strike rate of 150 plus. Not only that, he gave all the answers that were asked by the fans about his bowling as he managed to pick up 11 wickets in 8 games with an efficient economy of 7.64. 

Throwing light on this, Hardik Pandya opined about the rough patch that he faced before winning the main event against South Africa by bowling a match-winning spell of 3 wickets for 20 runs in 3 overs and defending 16 runs in the final over of the innings to take the  Indian team to victory.\

“I just wanted those six months to return. I controlled myself a lot. I wanted to cry. But to all those people who were happy seeing me in pain during those difficult few months, I didn't want to give them more reasons to be happy. And I will never give them that moment. Look at the opportunity that I got today, probably by god's grace, I bowled the last over. I could not even imagine that. I'm speechless,” he said.

Hardik's return to form will definitely play a crucial role for the Indian team in the upcoming T20I matches as a captain and as a match-winner player.