Just ahead of the delayed toss due to rain at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Hardik stood in the middle of the Gujarat Titans huddle and gave a pep talk to his teammates in a very animated fashion. “High octane drama,” a fan commented on the post.
Here is the video:
An energetic Captain @hardikpandya7 leads the huddle talk for @gujarat_titans ahead of the BIG game 🙌🙌#TATAIPL | #Qualifier2 | #GTvMI pic.twitter.com/1L6TOVgvKz
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 26, 2023
Hardik led GT to title triumph in their inaugural season in the IPL 2022. He was one of the leading stars of the Mumbai Indians before he opted to move to Gujarat and fulfil his ambitions of leading an IPL team.
Gujarat Titans, who finished at the top of the points table in the league stage, lost Qualifier 1 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 15 runs in Chennai on Tuesday. Mumbai Indians (MI), on the other hand, defeated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 81 runs in the Eliminator.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and asked GT to bat first in Qualifier 2. Hardik said that he would have opted to bowl as well.
“We would have bowled as well, but it’s okay. Knockouts and qualifiers are fun, you have to be on your A game. It’s important to enjoy. If we can play our everything, we’ll be satisfied irrespective of the result.
“I know how the crowd is going to support us. Gujarati people are loyal. (Will you bowl?) Yeah, full throttle. Two changes. Josh Little and Sai Sudharsan come in for Shanaka and Nalkande,” Hardik said at the toss.
