“You’ll Play for India”: How Sachin Tendulkar Predicted Hardik Pandya’s International Future in IPL 2015

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s stature in the Indian team has grown leaps and bounds in the last year. After making his return last year, Pandya is now the vice-captain of the national team in both white-ball formats. He made his debut in 2016, and legendary Sachin Tendulkar predicted the same in 2015.

Pandya made his IPL debut in 2015 for Mumbai Indians and played for the franchise till 2021, before joining Gujarat Titans in 2022. Mumbai bought the all-rounder for a price of INR 10 lakh in IPL 2015 auction and currently, he is at a contract of INR 15 crore with Gujarat. The growth of Pandya has been staggering, to say the least.

Pandya made his debut for India in a T20I match against Australia in Adelaide. He got the worst possible start where he bowled 11 deliveries to complete the over and conceded 19 runs. After taking his first wicket, he got so excited that former India captain MS Dhoni had to control him.

Sachin Tendulkar Predicted Hardik Pandya’s International Future in IPL 2015

Pandya had wished Tendulkar on his birthday in 2020. On the same Tweet, Mumbai Indians wrote what Tendulkar said about Pandya in 2015.

“The way you’re playing and the kind of potential and talent that you have, you’ll play for India in another one to one and a half years,” Sachin had predicted with respect to Pandya in 2015.

“The way you’re playing and the kind of potential and talent that you have, you’ll play for India in another one to one and a half years.” – #Sachin 🐐 to @hardikpandya7 in 2015!#HappyBirthdaySachin #OneFamily @sachin_rt https://t.co/FBbmCofsg2

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 24, 2020

Pandya had also said that Tendular’s words gave him a lot of confidence. He revealed that he got motivated after the same, and it inspired him to work even harder for his dreams.

“So, it gave me a lot of self-confidence,” Pandya had said to NDTV.

“That time I was very happy. It feels good that someone you admire comes and tells you these sorts of things. It gives you a lot of confidence, you start believing in yourself. When he said that I was like ‘Okay, let’s work hard now’.”

Hardik Pandya IPL 2015 performance

Mumbai won the IPL title in 2015, but it was not a great year for Pandya with either the bat or ball. He scored 112 runs in nine matches at a strike-rate of 180.64. In bowling, he managed to scalp just a lone wicket at an economy rate of 10.35.

That being said, Pandya’s hitting ability impressed everyone that season. Pandya has represented India in 11 Tests, 74 ODIs and 87 T20Is so far.