‘He Said Sai Kishore and I Said Rashid Khan’: GT Skipper Hardik Pandya Reveals Time he Defied Coach Ashish Nehra During IPL 2022 Final

Maverick Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya led the Gujarat Titans to glory on their first attempt as the team lifted the IPL 2022 trophy by beating Rajasthan Royals in the final.

Pandya recently revealed that there was one moment in the summit clash when he disagreed with coach Ashish Nehra and it turned out to be crucial in the championship match.

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“The only time I went against his wish was in the final,” Pandya said in a GT podcast.

“Rashid Khan generally never bowls his third over around the 12-over mark. I always gave him 14th and 16th over, I always believed Rashid is at his best when people target him. When people play him around, he may take wickets but Rashid is my ace. I have to use the ace most effectively,” he asserted.

“In that game, Devdutt Padikkal was around 2 runs off 9 balls. He’d played out an entire over of mine quietly. Rashid had already bowled 3 overs. Generally, we never finish his quota around the 12th over. I saw the scoreboard and realised they were 80/2. Sanju and Yashasvi were out, I think,” Pandya explained.

“But I knew they had one batter short, that was very important for me to know. That was the style of their play last year, and it was a potential weakness. We couldn’t exploit that weakness in the qualifier, Buttler hit us. But we had made other inroads that time,” he elaborated.

“Since it was the final, I thought we could be more aggressive in exploiting that weakness. Ashu Pa gestured to me to bowl Sai Kishore. I called Sai, but then I stopped,” the 29-year-old recounted.

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“I look at the score, ’11 overs are down, and I’ve bowled 2, and given away 6. Buttler has scored 35 runs and he’s batting at a run-a-ball, Devdutt is 2 off 9. This is the over they will have to target. If a left-handed Padikkal targets Sai and hits two sixes, he may get back to rhythm. What seems like a 150-odd score may become 170′. In the final, those 20 extra runs would make a big difference. I knew Buttler also wants to open up, so this over was important,” Hardik explained.

“I asked Sai to wait and gave the ball to Rashid. He bowled a quiet over and got Devdutt’s wicket,” Pandya recollected.

“Buttler was planning to explode, but after losing Devdutt, and playing one batter short, Buttler instead of playing his natural game continued to be in his shell. Because of that, he became tentative and eventually got out.”

“For me, that was the only time I went against his wishes,” Hardik concluded.

“He said Sai Kishore and I said, no. Rashid will bowl.”

GT have picked up where they left off last season and are top of the table in the 2023 edition with 12 points from 9 games.

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