Krunal Pandya

Krunal Pandya, a cricket who reflects the nature of modern cricket is one of the key players for Mumbai Indians. Just like his brother Hardik Pandya, Krunal used the IPL as a platform for higher honors. A hard-hitting middle-order batsman, Krunal is also a quick left-arm spinner who is ideally suited to T20 cricket. 

The Pandya family had a humble background with the family relocating from Surat to Vadodara so that the brothers could join the Kiran More Academy. Although Krunal had made his T20 debut way back in 2013 and had decent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaigns in both the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons, the year 2016 could be termed as the turning point in his career. The Mumbai Indians’ scouts spotted him and eventually, the franchise bought Krunal for INR 2 Crores. 

The all-rounder did well right-away with 237 runs and six wickets from 12 matches with a stunning 86-run knock off just 37 balls being the highlight of his season. The confidence from performing at a high level was visible as Krunal led the charts for Baroda in the 2016-17 Vijay Hazare Trophy with 366 runs and 11 wickets from eight matches. 

He then produced a fine all-round campaign for Mumbai Indians with 243 runs and 10 wickets in the 2017 IPL season which Mumbai won by defeating Rising Pune Supergiant in a thrilling final. In fact, in the final, Krunal came up with a ‘Man of the Match’ outing by scoring 47 runs in what was a low-scoring game. Soon, the Indian selectors noticed him and he was on the plane to South Africa with India A for a tri-series which also involved Afghanistan A. 

The consistency in performances was rewarded superbly as Mumbai Indians bought Krunal back for a massive INR 8.8 Crores in the 2018 IPL auctions. Since then, the southpaw has been a reliable performer for the franchise and has become a key part of the team. With the bat, Mumbai has often promoted him higher up the order which has shown the confidence the management has in the player. 

Except for the 2019 IPL season which didn’t go well with the bat, Krunal has improved massively especially when it comes to his left-arm spin bowling. While Krunal isn’t a traditional left-arm spinner who will use flight and turn to outfox the batsmen, he has become a tough bowler to the line-up because of the quick pace he delivers. Krunal also finds the blockhole with admirable regularity and also bowls very wide of off-stump to restrict batsmen according to different situations. 

He has also been a consistent performer for India A in 50-overs cricket with 640 runs and 34 wickets in 32 matches. It has been only the spot in the Indian T20I side that Krunal has not been able to nail down after making his debut against the West Indies in November 2018. Unlike his economy rate that hovers around seven runs per over in the IPL, Krunal has conceded 8.11 runs per over in T20I cricket. That has been the major reason for his inconsistent presence in international cricket although he could be used as a part-time option who could come up with some big-hitting against the spinners.

At the age of 29, Krunal is supposed to be going through his prime years in his cricketing career. The clever all-rounder will hope to make a comeback to the T20I side and also try and get into the ODI set-up too.