Hardik Pandya

Early years

Hardik Pandya was born on 11 October 1993 in Surat, Gujarat. His father Himanshu Pandya ran a small car finance business in Surat which he shut down and, shifted to Vadodara when Hardik was five, in order to facilitate his sons with better cricket training facilities. He enrolled his two sons (Hardik and Krunal) into Kiran More's cricket academy in Vadodara. Financially weak, the Pandya family lived in a rented apartment in Gorwa, with the brothers using a second-hand car to travel to the cricket ground. Hardik studied at the MK High School till ninth grade before dropping out to focus on cricket.

Hardik made steady progress and junior-level cricket and, according to Krunal, "won a lot of matches single-handedly" in club cricket. In an interview with the Indian Express, Hardik revealed that he was dropped from his state age-group teams due to his "attitude problems." He added that he was "just an expressive child" who does not "like to hide [his] emotions."

Domestic career

Pandya has been playing for Baroda cricket team since 2013. He played a vital role in Baroda winning the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the 2013–14 season.

In the 2015 season of the Indian Premier League, he scored a quick fire 21 runs of 8 balls and grabbed three important catches to help Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets and was awarded the man of the match. After the first qualifier against Chennai Super Kings, Sachin Tendulkar called over Hardik and told him that he will play for India in the next 18 months. Within one year he was chosen to play in the Indian squad during 2016 Asia Cup and 2016 ICC World Twenty20.

Later on against Kolkata Knight Riders in a must win situation for Mumbai Indians to remain in the race for the top 4 teams, he scored a quickfire 61 of 31 balls to earn his second man of the match award in the season and won the match for his side. He was also awarded the 'Yes Bank maximum sixes award' for the same match.

In January 2016, he slammed eight sixes during his innings unbeaten 86 to guide Baroda cricket team to a six-wicket win over Vidarbha cricket team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

T20Is

Pandya made his Twenty20 International debut for India on 27 January 2016 at the age of 22, picking up 2 wickets against Australia. His first Twenty20 International wicket was Chris Lynn. In the second T20I against Sri Lanka cricket team at Ranchi, he came ahead of Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni and hit 27 off 14 balls before becoming hat-trick victim of Thisara Perera. In Asia Cup 2016, Pandya smashed a 18-ball 31 helping India post a respectable score against Bangladesh. Later on, he also picked up a wicket to secure the win. In the next match against Pakistan he bowled his career best figures of 3 for 8 which restricted Pakistan to 83. In a 2016 World Twenty20 match against Bangladesh on 23 March, Pandya took two crucial wickets in the last three balls of match's final over as India beat Bangladesh by one run.

ODI career

Pandya made his One Day International (ODI) debut for India against New Zealand on 16 October 2016 at Dharamshala and took three wickets helping India win by 6 wickets. He became the fourth Indian to be named player of the match on ODI debut after Sandeep Patil, Mohit Sharma and K. L. Rahul. In his first ODI innings as a better, he scored 36 runs from 32 balls. On 18 June 2017, in the final of the Champions Trophy at the Oval, he struck a 43-ball 76 in a losing cause, after coming in with India at 54/5 following a top order collapse. Reaching his half-century in 32 deliveries, he broke Adam Gilchrist's record for the fastest to get there in any ICC competition.

Test career

Pandya was included in India's Test squad for their home series against England in late 2016, but was eventually left out after he injured himself while training in the nets at the PCA Stadium. He was named in the squad that toured Sri Lanka in July 2017 and played his first Test on 26 July in Galle.In the 3rd and the final test match against Sri Lanka at Pallekele, Pandya scored his maiden Test century, and set the record for becoming the first Indian batsman to score a test century just before lunch and set the record for scoring the most number of runs in a single over of a test innings for India in their test history scoring 26 runs. This century was his first century in any first-class cricket match as well.