Hardik Pandya will make his captaincy debut when he leads the Gujarat Titans against the Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. 

Ahead of his side’s first match, Pandya, who played a majority of his games at the Wankhede when he was with the Mumbai Indians for seven years, said that he wants to achieve sporting success.

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In a video posted on Gujarat Titans’ Twitter handle, Pandya said that he wishes to emulate his ‘big brother’ MS Dhoni and ‘hero’ Sachin Tendulkar. The 28-year-old added that he is building a flamboyant and confident team. 

“Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking, captain Hardik Pandya. I am not going to tell you where I came from, you probably know that. I will tell you where I am taking you off to, it is towards that peak called sporting success,” the Titans skipper started off. 

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That sweet lofty spot where grit lives with grind, labour leads to luck. It is a range that my brother (MS Dhoni) has scaled and I have made no attempts to hide that I want to emulate him,” he added. 

Watch:

Pandya on Monday will lock horns with his brother Krunal and close friend KL Rahul, who represent the Lucknow Super Giants. 

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“It is a place that my hero (Sachin Tendulkar) has owned and told me stories how he got there. It is a journey which will sometimes pit me against my sibling, my soulmate and many of my closest friends. And like every flight, this journey might also have turbulence,” he said. 

The India all-rounder further referred to the ‘Koffee With Karan’ controversey he was involved in. He said that he has also survived a grulleing back injury.

“If I have a survived a national storm, a ban and grueling back injury and more, I know what it takes. Confidence, flamboyance, whatever you term it, I just know when I walk in with bat in my hand, my opponents get tiny little chills in their spine knowing that I can pull off a heist from anywhere.”

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“And here’s the best part, I am shaping a whole team to be like that. Will we falter? Of course, but we will go back and toil harder,” he added.

Gujarat Titans Squad: Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Abhinav Sadarangani, Rahul Tewatia, Noor Ahmad, R Sai Kishore, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, Pradeep Sangwan, David Miller, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Gurkeerat Singh, Varun Aaron, B Sai Sudarshan.