India's star players are gearing up for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) after they lost the just concluded ODI series to Australia 1-2. The sixteenth edition of the IPL, which is set to start from March 31, will be a two-month affair which will give Indian team management a clear picture about picking the best sides for the ODI World Cup which will be played in India later this year.
The player who will be closely observed in the IPL 2023 is India's star all-rounder who also happen to be defending champions Gujarat Giants' skipper. Hardik led his team to IPL 2022 title and ever since he is only doing great for Team India. Meanwhile right ahead of the IPL 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) Dinesh Karthik has said that Hardik is 'unarguably the most important player' in current India's fold.
"He is unarguably the most important player in the lineup because he brings two skills to the floor and the fact that he brings two tough skills to the floor. Medium pacer and batting all-rounder is something that is very, very hard to get. Yes, there are 2-3 players who are probably spinning all-rounders, but fast bowling all-rounders is very hard to get", Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
Hardik fared well with his all-rounder show in the recently concluded ODI series against Australia. He provided key breakthrough and chipped in with the bat whenever Team India needed him the most.
"He bats really well through the middle and obviously when it comes to bowling, he seems to find a way to chip in and get wickets. What makes him really hard to play is his natural link because the way he bowls, you always feel he is going to keep short of length. But the moment he starts bowling fuller, the batsman's weight is on the backfoot, looking for the short ball a lot more and hence you always tend to be slightly slower. It was a well-thought out dismissal of Mitchell Marsh, he changed the pace well, he got Travis Head to play a pull shot, dropped in deep square. But again got him playing a cut shot," Karthik added.
"He is bowling well. He is definitely a very important cog in the wheel. He is one of those players that literally make up the outlook of the team, the way the team is constructed depends on where Hardik Pandya is. Suddenly if you remove him from the whole team and you feel that are we going a batter more or are we going a batter less. It becomes a massive question mark. For Team India, the key player is Hardik Pandya and if he is in form, he brings a lot to the table," Karthik concluded.
Since 2022, Pandya has picked a total of 42 wickets in a total of 44 matches he's played in the ODI and T20Is for India, while also scoring 1016 runs with the bat.
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