Restrained Pandya grabs limelight

Hardik Pandya doesn't do "regular". "Life, king size" seems to be more his thing. He is what they call filmy - read: dramatic. Pandya is a showman; look up his interviews on YouTube to watch him explode into a gazillion expressions in less than a minute. He is image-conscious, finicky about brands, and even shares his birthday with Amitabh Bachchan; you wonder why he isn't in Bollywood.

Pandya's love for the limelight also means he loves taking on a challenge. In IPL 2016, he had the chance to be play-maker when Mumbai Indians promoted him to No. 3, but the move didn't quite work out. Both his batting and bowling form took a hit, and he was left out of India's subsequent limited-overs series against Zimbabwe and West Indies. Up to that point, though, Pandya had featured in each of the 16 T20Is India had played in 2016, picking up 15 wickets at an average of 24. He was then sent to Australia with the India A team, where, statistically, he didn't have a great tour, but the selectors had seen enough to bring him back.

A few minutes before the toss in Dharamsala, Pandya was surrounded by his team-mates as he collected his maiden ODI cap from Kapil Dev, incidentally 38 years to the day since India's finest allrounder had made his Test debut. Pandya was in the spotlight again for about 30 seconds. MS Dhoni decided Pandya could bask in it a while longer when he gave him the new ball.

"Our thinking was to give him a chance to exploit the new ball. The reason being, we all felt, he is quite deceptive - he can bowl quick and he has got movement," Dhoni said. "Even on wickets where some of the other bowlers don't get that kind of swing, he is still somebody who can get some purchase of the wicket."

Pandya didn't begin well, though, as Martin Guptill took him for three fours off his first five balls. The numbers weren't in his favour again, but two of those three boundaries were off edges, and a fourth delivery only just missed Guptill's outside edge. Dhoni made note and installed a third slip before the last delivery of the over. Pandya got the ball to swerve in on a length and straighten to find Guptill's edge, which went went to second slip.

Pandya took off in celebration, with arms outstretched, but there was none of his usual vein-bursting screams. His only extravagance on the day, in fact, was a pair of sunglasses that appeared to be fashioned after cartoon characters Swat Kats' headgear.

Pandya maintained good pace, staying between the late 130s and early 140s, and married it with late movement to frequently find the batsmen's body: Kane Williamson copped one on the thigh pad, while Tom Latham, who handled Pandya with the most ease, was hit on the box. While Pandya leaked a boundary in each of his first three overs and bled 26 runs - mostly by bowling too full - he made it up by giving away only five more runs in his next four overs.

He was particularly effective against the left-hand batsmen, conceding only 18 runs off the 31 balls they faced. Pandya benefited as much from his "Test match length" as from his new-ball partner Umesh Yadav's accuracy at the other end; together they pinned down the returning Corey Anderson before his attempt to club Pandya was snaffled by a diving Umesh at mid-off.

With the first leg of the Pandya experiment having gone well, Dhoni said he wanted to give him a decent run with the new ball. "We only have eight games before the Champions Trophy [including the Dharamsala ODI], so we would like to see under different situations and conditions how he reacts and how he quickly he can adapt to the conditions," Dhoni said. "Of course, let's say for example, if it is 2-2 and it is the fifth game of the series, then we will obviously try to play the best XI. But, I don't see any reason if he keeps performing the way he did in this game why he can't be our first pick when it comes to the three fast bowlers."

Pandya, meanwhile, was back in the limelight when he walked out to collect his Man-of-the-Match award. The characteristic wide grin was in place, but there was no excessive animation, mirroring his manner from the game. It wasn't a bad change to embrace on a comeback. To the new ball then, and new beginnings.