Leading in the IPL for the first time in his career, Hardik Pandya marched the Gujarat Titans to their maiden IPL title, that too in the franchise’s debut season, as they thrashed the Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets in the final at the colossal Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
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Pandya himself was the Player of the Match in the final for his superb all-round performance.
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First, with the ball, he took three important wickets – those of Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer – while Sai Kishore snapped up couple of late wickets, after one each had been snapped up by Rashid Khan, Yash Dayal and Mohammed Shami, restricting RR to a below-par 130.
GT suffered a hiccup in the chase, losing Saha and Wade for the score of 23. Pandya joined hands with Gill and without taking any unnecessary or miscalculated risk the pair forged a partnership of 63 runs off 53 balls before Pandya (34 off 30) succumbed to Chahal’s spin.
With the game all but done, David Miller hammered 32 runs off 19 balls before Gill then launched Obed McCoy for a maximum making Titans the champions of IPL 2022.
What was Hardik Pandya’s salary in his first IPL season?
Hardik was with Mumbai Indians since 2015 and it was an emotional moment for both the parties when their association ended after he was not retained ahead of the IPL 2022 mega-auction.
Pandya was scouted by the MI scouting team in Baroda and then the franchise bought him for 10 lakh in the 2015 auction!! 10 Lakh!
Image Source – Hindustan Times
He played a significant role in MI winning the 2015 title and soon was fast-tracked into the Indian team as well. After helping MI to the 2017 IPL trophy too, Pandya was retained for 11 crore by the franchise for the 2018-2021 cycle where they won two more IPL titles with the all-rounder playing a massive role in their triumphs.
That story though ended when MI opted to not retain Hardik, who was quickly roped in by the Titans for 15 crore and appointed their captain. He has repaid the Titans’ owners’ faith by winning them the IPL 2022.
