"Whenever you go to him, he is ready to help" - Yash Dayal on playing under Hardik Pandya's captaincy for Gujarat Titans in IPL 2022
Yash Dayal has lauded Hardik Pandya for always being willing to help him during his stint with the Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL 2022.
Dayal played a crucial role in the Titans' title-winning run in the recently concluded edition of the Indian Premier League. The left-arm pacer, who missed the first few matches due to injury, scalped 11 wickets in the nine games he played in the tournament.
During an interaction on India News, Dayal was asked how Hardik groomed him during IPL 2022. He responded:
"Hardik Pandya as a captain, extremely cool and composed, a bowler's captain. Whenever you go to him, he is ready to help and that gets reflected in his captaincy as well."
The GT pacer added that Hardik brought to good use the experience he gained from playing under the likes of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Dayal explained:
"He has so much experience himself, he has played under Mahi bhaiya (MS Dhoni) and Virat Kohli, he has learnt a lot from that. He is a tremendous captain. A very good friend off the field, friendly behavior, very different from what he is on the screen, extremely chilled out."
Many cricket experts were skeptical when the Gujarat Titans named Hardik Pandya as their skipper ahead of IPL 2022. However, the all-rounder proved them wrong by taking the IPL newcomers to the title.
"A captain's faith is very important" - Yash Dayal on his conversations with Hardik Pandya
Dayal also highlighted the faith shown in him by Hardik and the coaching staff including Ashish Nehra. He elaborated:
"A captain's faith is very important. The conversation should be absolutely clear between you and the captain and the management. I used to sit with coach sir and Hardik bhaiya before the match on how we can plan."
The 24-year-old concluded by stating that the off-field planning eased his job on the field of play. Dayal observed:
"So I used to get a lot of clarity on the ground, what ball I need to bowl to which batter. So, not much discussion used to happen on the ground, off the field there were a lot of discussions, those things helped me a lot."
The Gujarat Titans seemed to be a calm and collected unit on the ground. They didn't get flustered in any situation, which helped them win many close games.
Also Read: "Shubman Gill is the most difficult batter to bowl to in the nets" - Yash Dayal on his experience of bowling to Gujarat Titans' batters