'A lot of people said a lot of things without knowing who Hardik Pandya is'

BRIDGETOWN (Barbados): Hardik Pandya has been to hell and back in the last few months. An injury cut short a promising ODI World Cup campaign and that eventually cost him his T20 captaincy as well. It was followed by a disastrous move to Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans in the IPL, replacing Rohit Sharma as the captain, which wasn’t too well received by fans. His form, too, took a nosedive and there was a clamour to drop him from the T20 World Cup squad.

The BCCI and captain Rohit, however, felt Hardik had done enough to get a chance. He was included to add depth to a lineup both in batting and bowling. It was ironic that he was left to bowl the last over with 16 to play with in the final, but Hardik rose to the occasion and got the job done.