Australia tour with India A was a huge learning experience: Hardik Pandya

“The India A tour to Australia last year has been a learning curve” @hardikpandya7 on how he has matured over the past year #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/KmxCB86h41

— BCCI (@BCCI) 24 January 2017

“After the World Cup I had a reality check of what are the things I need to improve upon in my game,” he said, “The Australia tour (with India A) was pretty important for me,” he said, “I learnt a lot of things about my game, Rahul sir (India A coach Rahul Dravid) used to talk to me about my game and the mental aspects.”

Pandya is part of the squad that faces England in a three match T20 International series starting on January 26 at Kanpur’s Green Park stadium. He has been an important cog in the India ODI setup since his debut against New Zealand, chipping in with important wickets time and again and also playing important cameos with the bat.

In the third and final ODI against England at Kolkata, Pandya, alongwith Kedar Jadhav, almost dragged India to an unlikely win after their top order were dismissed chasing a total of 322. Coming in at number six when Indian were 173/5, Pandya struck up a 104-run partnership. In the process, he scored his highest ODI score but was dismissed by the man of the match Ben Stokes.

Pandya and Jadhav have been regarded as one of the best finds in the ODI series that India have played against New Zealand and England. They are expected to play important roles in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy.