IPL 2022: Hardik Pandya wants to emulate MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar ahead of captaincy debut

Hardik Pandya is all set for his captaincy
debut in IPL 2022 with Gujarat Titans taking on Lucknow Super Giants on
Monday. Ahead of the match, Hardik said he wants to emulate the success of MS
Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar to take the franchise towards the peak of sporting success.

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“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. 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,” said Hardik in a video posted on the official Twitter
handle of Gujarat Titans.

“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 stated further.

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Hardik also talked about the controversy
that happened during his appearance on ‘Koffee With Karan’. “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,” said the all-rounder.

“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.

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Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill were
the three players who were signed by Gujarat Titans before the auction.

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.