India’s debut match in the Champions Trophy against the arch rival Pakistan was a real bang on, the players did their best in clinching the debut for their country. It was batsmen’s show all the way, the first four batsmen went up with their massive fifties and the last one was Hardik Pandya who swiftly delivered three astounding sixes racing up India’s total to 319 and his, a quick twenty.

Surprisingly, post the match, Hardik Pandya has revealed that he was unaware of the fact that he’s going to strike ahead of the former Team India’s captain MS Dhoni. Further after being congratulated for his limited yet astounding ground presence, Pandya said that he was intimated that he’s going to bat next to Yuvraj Singh. Shocked and pressurized Pandya wore his gloves and headed to the pitch roping in some quick runs to the team.

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“I got to know in the 46th over when coach told me, ‘You will be going next, go pad up.’ Obviously, I padded up quickly and once I got my gloves, I went out straight away because Yuvi paa got out,” said Hardik Pandya.

When asked about the bowler Imad Wasim he is going to face, Pandya said that he always wanted to face a leg spinner and is quite confident about it.

Pandya said:

“When I saw the left-arm spinner, I knew that I could go for it. It’s all about backing yourself. I always feel that in cricket, you need to back yourself and be confident. Once you are confident, you take the right decision and eventually that pays off.”

“Honestly I won’t lie, the pressure was there. But still, at the back of my mind, I was thinking of it as a normal game because I didn’t want to take the unnecessary pressure. In any game, I wouldn’t want to take unnecessary pressure on myself because that makes you do something that you are not supposed to do,” he added.

Being an all-rounder there is always a room for him to face such surprises, he also said that he’s now quite familiar with the International matches and it was just an another game for him.

“Honestly, I don’t think I have any pressure because I have been playing regularly. I am not playing in place of anyone, it’s just the requirement of the team based on the conditions on offer. Since I made my international debut, I have played all the games that I was part of the squad for, except for one which I sat out in Visakhapatnam,” concluded Pandya.