How did Hardik Pandya become Indian cricket’s pantomime villain?

Fast bowlers are rare. Perhaps because it is not natural for our species to bowl fast. Ask anyone to hurl a stone and they are likely to throw it, not bowl. In India, more so, even in an era when the BCCI supply chain has kept churning out pacers regularly since the mid-2010s.

An Indian fast bowler who can bat in the top six is, thus, nothing but gold dust. Not only in India, throughout the history of cricket, that is the kind of cricketer every team around the world had wanted in their XI but has seldom found.

All that makes Hardik Pandya an elite cricketer. The numbers tell how special he has been in his roles. His Test career is unlikely to go past 11 games, but he averages marginally more with the bat than with the ball; and has a hundred in a session Sri Lanka, a ninety in South Africa, and an unbeaten fifty and a five-wicket haul in England.

Of batters with more ODI runs at a better strike rate than Pandya, only Shahid Afridi and Thisara Perera have more wickets than him. Use the same criterion in T20Is, and the list reduces to only Afridi. In the IPL, he has the third-best strike rate among batters with as many runs, and neither Virender Sehwag nor Rishabh Pant bowls pace.

Pandya has also led India in both limited-overs formats. He was the national vice-captain in the 2023 World Cup, when he last played for India. In T20Is, he has led India to 10 wins and five defeats: of Indian captains to have led ten times, his win-loss ratio of exactly 2 is behind only Rohit Sharma’s 3.416.

Back in 2022, Mumbai Indians had released Pandya ahead of the mega-auction. Gujarat Titans, one of the two new franchises that season, acquired him and appointed him captain. Like most expansion teams, Gujarat seemed set for initial failure before the first ascent, especially under someone with little experience at the helm.

Pandya led them to title glory in their first season. It was not a fluke. He led them to the final again next season, and it was only off the last ball that Chennai Super Kings prevailed.

All that should have made Pandya one of India’s most-loved cricketers. He almost certainly is one. His many commercials across platforms bear testimony to him being a much sought-after brand.

Yet, things have not been rosy for him of late.

The story should begin at a time when Pandya made his Test debut. By the time he was done with his first series in the format, in Sri Lanka in 2017, unfair comparisons with Kapil Dev were already underway.

The comparisons were not Pandya’s fault, but as it often happens, he came at the receiving end of uncalled-for criticism. The chains and tattoos, none of which had anything to do with cricket, became part of the potshots.

Pandya certainly did not help his own cause when he made horribly misogynistic comments on Koffee With Karan, a television talk show, in 2019. He was rightly suspended from playing for India (as was KL Rahul, who also appeared in the show) and lost Gillette as a sponsor, but found his way back to the Indian team. Barring injuries – a natural outcome of the dual workload of a fast bowler who bats up the order – he did not look back.

Then, just ahead of the auction for the 2024 IPL, Mumbai Indians acquired him for an undisclosed but almost certainly astronomical sum. One can see why. With five titles, Rohit is one of the two most successful IPL captains, but he would turn 38 during IPL 2025. Mumbai would need to prepare his successor. Jasprit Bumrah was an option, but fast bowlers seldom get the job. They turned to the national vice-captain with whom they already shared a rapport.

IPL captains have been replaced before. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were sacked. Ahead of the 2017 season, Rising Pune Supergiant replaced MS Dhoni with Steve Smith, but the uproar was muted, perhaps because it was going to be their last season in the league anyway.

Dhoni later stepped down as Chennai Super Kings captain twice. On the first occasion, in 2022, he was reappointed after Ravindra Jadeja quit mid-season. In the second, in 2024, Ruturaj Gaikwad has received considerable support. The Royal Challengers Bangalore fans similarly took to Faf du Plessis once Virat Kohli quit the job in 2023.

Yet, there was a difference. By stepping down, Dhoni and Kohli had made the transition seamless. This was in stark contrast with Rohit, who never technically resigned: Mumbai released a statement on social mediainstead.

This helped create an impression that the transition might not have been as smooth as portrayed. The responsibility to make the course of events seamless did not lie with Pandya, who simply took up a contract and role he liked – something professionals do across sectors. It did not help matters that Mumbai’s first match was an away fixture with Gujarat, Pandya’s former team.

Pandya was booed throughout the match. He was not a first in this. Sunil Gavaskar faced the wrath of the Calcutta crowd in 1984/85 because he delayed a declaration. The incident made him so upset that he opted out of his next Test at the venue, in 1986/87. He was also booed at his home venue, the Wankhede Stadium, after he fell cheaply in the 1987 World Cup semi-final. Nearly two decades later, the same ground went after Sachin Tendulkar after he had a torrid time in a Test match against England.

The list is long, and 0ne can go on, but there is a difference. First, none of them had to endure the toxic casteist slurs Pandya had to face on social media for no fault of his. And secondly, all of them were blamed for cricketing acts – something they could control. It was forgotten that Pandya had not appointed himself captain but merely accepted the role.

Pandya did not face as much heat when Mumbai lost their second match, in Hyderabad, partly because the deluge of runs from the local batters left room for little else. But at the same time, all of India waited with his sternest test, during Mumbai’s first home game, that too against a rampant Rajasthan Royals.

The ocean of “Rohit 45” shirts foretold the story long before the match began. When the crowd began by booing Pandya at the toss, Sanjay Manjrekar had to ask them to “behave” (did he really expect that to work on grown-ups?).

Pandya did play a gem that day. His 21-ball 34 at least helped Mumbai avert the ignominy of a two-digit score after they were 20-4, but it was too good to last, and their 125-9 turned out to be inadequate.

Even amidst that, there was a glimmer of hope for Pandya. The applause for the first, or even the second of his six boundaries was muted, but slowly, surely, he had begun to win them over until the effort was cut short.

Perhaps that is where redemption lies for Indian cricket’s pantomime villain. Perhaps there is truth in the old adage of nothing succeeding like success.