Hardik Pandya jumps past Jasprit Bumrah, R Ashwin; sets up unique first for Indians in T20 cricket

Hardik Pandya picked a rather unwanted record of being the first Indian captain since 2016 to have lost to the West Indies in two consecutive T20 matches. However, he collected a couple of individual records that are a testimony to just how important he has been to the Indian T20 setup over the years.

Pandya scored 24 runs and was India's highest wicket taker with three scalps during their second T20I against the West Indies. In the process, he became the first Indian to cross 4000 runs and take 150 wickets in T20 cricket. Pandya's performance with the ball took his overall T20 tally to 152 wickets and he also has 4391 runs to his name in 241 matches.

Additionally Pandya also jumped past Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin to become India's third highest wicket taker in T20 international cricket. Pandya has 73 wickets in T20Is and is now only behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal in the list. Chahal has taken 95 wickets while Bhuvneshwar has 90. Interestingly, Pandya is eighth in the list of most runs in T20 Internationals by Indians, having made 1314 runs in 89 games.

Pandya made his debut in a T20 match in January 2016 against Australia. Since then, he has scored 1666 runs and taken 73 wickets in 77 ODI matches including 10 half centuries. He has also played 11 Test matches in which he scored 532 runs, including a century, and took 17 wickets.

Pandya demands more from batters

The records he broke meant nothing for India on Sunday though as they lost to the West Indies by two wickets despite a remarkable fightback from the visitors towards the end of the match. It was spinner Yuzvendra Chahal who stopped the cruising West Indies in their tracks in the powerplay. Pandya was criticised for not allowiing Chahal to bowl either of the final two overs, thus leaving the spinner with one over left in his spell despite the West Indies batters looking helpless against him after Nicholas Pooran was dismissed.

However, Pandya felt that India had to bat better in the first place. "If I am being honest that was a not a pleasing batting performance. The wickets were falling and the track was on the slower side. We could have batted better. 160 plus or 170 would have been a good total. Batters need to take more responsibility," Hardik said at the post-match presentation.

“With the current combination we have we will have to trust our top seven batters to come good and hope the bowlers win you games. We have to find ways to make sure we have the right balance, but at the same time, batters need to take more responsibility,” he further said.