Not occupied with India comeback, my deal with IPL now: Hardik Pandya

In red-hot type with three fifties in a row for Gujarat Titans, out-of-favour India all-rounder Hardik Pandya on Saturday stated his nationwide staff comeback will not be in his palms and he’s simply targeted on doing effectively within the ongoing IPL.

The premier all-rounder, who sat out towards Chennai Super Kings due to a groin harm, was again with a 49-ball 67 — his third fifty in a row — to guide Gujarat Titans to an eight-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders. The Titans’ third win on the trot consolidated their place on the highest of the desk.

“I don’t think it’s my (India) comeback anyway and secondly I don’t focus on my comeback. I focus on the game which I play,” Pandya stated on the post-match media convention. The 28-year-old made his final look for India towards Namibia within the T20 World Cup in Dubai in November final yr after which struggled to handle his bowling workload put up his again surgical procedure solely to return to motion within the IPL.

In the continuing IPL, Pandya is sitting second within the run chart behind chief Jos Buttler with 295 runs from six innings at a mean of 73.75. “At the moment, I am playing IPL and will focus on IPL, then will see where the future takes. It’s never in my hands now. I focus on the team which I’m playing in. We are doing well and I’m very happy,” he added.

Pandya stated he’s relishing each little bit of his captaincy function for debutants Gujarat Titans. “Captaincy obviously helps. I’m always a cricketer who loves to take responsibilities. I have a bit of understanding of the game having batted for so many years,” he stated.

“You’re successful because you’ve an understanding of the game. Having played so many matches, I’m able to use my experience. So far, so good,” he added. The Titans bought off to a spectacular begin, have been 133/2 in 16 overs however they misplaced wickets in heap within the back-end — 4 within the closing over — to accept 156/9.

“I feel we were 10-15 runs short, they kind of finished very strong. But with the kind of bowling attack, I backed my chances. The wicket had up and down bounce. The back of the length ball was working pretty nicely,” Pandya added. For KKR, it was their fourth loss on the trot however head coach Brendon McCullum stated they’re assured to make the semi-finals.

“The confidence in the batting unit should stay relatively high. We still believe we’re good enough to be in the semifinals and be the there at the thick end of the competition,” McCullum stated. Chasing 157, KKR have been going nice weapons with Russell on hearth and wanted 29 runs from the final two overs. But Alzarri Joseph produced a high quality closing over and dismissed Russell for a 25-ball 48 to derail their chase.

“Our batters have been very good so far. We scored 210-odd in the last game. We have got 170-plus batting first (against Sunrisers Hyderabad), our batters have been predominantly very good,” he stated, backing their batters. “Overall I think we have been batting pretty well. From 34/4 and to be able to rebuild the innings and explode with Russell was pretty good but unfortunately that was not quite enough,” he added.

Dejected at his aspect’s loss, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer stated: “The way we started in the powerplay while chasing and even with the ball. We shouldn’t have conceded that much in these conditions.” “I feel 160-165 was an honest rating and we did effectively to maintain them under that. In this format, all matches which are shut we have to win these and solely then we are able to climb up the ladder.

“Three out of our last four were very close matches. The energy and vibe is high before the game and it is disappointing that we are unable to convert it,” he added.