Former English star batsman Kevin Pietersen has all high praise for India’s destructive middle order batsman in limited overs Hardik Pandya. In a recent interview with Betway, Ex-England cricketer said hitting sixes consistently is not an easy job but if you have timing like Pandya, you can smash ball all over the park whenever you want.
There were conversations among former players in the video and interesting one was if is it necessary to have muscular body to hit sixes on regular basis. So Pietersen said that Pandya doesn’t have body like Gayle or Pollard but he’s tremendous timing to send ball out of the park.
“You only have to have a look at a guy like Hardik Pandya from India. He is fairly muscly, but he’s not a Kieron Pollard or Chris Gayle. Hitting sixes regularly – it’s timing-based,” KP said in a video on Betway.
Darren Lehman, David Miller and there were several other cricketers were part of the conversation where they discussed about the secrets of hitting sixes in T20 cricket. In this lineup, Kevin said that during ICC World T20 2010, England planed and practiced range-hitting that helped them winning first ever world cup in their history. Whole English unit planned that if ball came out to their area, they’d smack it.
“In the 2010 world cup, which we won in the Caribbean, that was the first time that we really went out and practiced range-hitting. If there’s a ball in the area that I’ve been really clouting, she goes” Pietersen quoted.
According to England’s one of the finest ball hitter in limited overs, good stance and mentality of a batsman plays crucial role in hitting a six. Bat sizes matter as well when you talk about hitting sixes at regular pace.
“I’ve got a whole collection of my bats. When I started my bats were this big and when I finished my bats were that big. Your bat has to be something that when you look down and think, ‘I’m going to take this bowler on’, you stand a good chance.”
Time is changed as well. Now players don’t think about getting out. They just start exploring themselves and hit the ball to all over the park. Batsmen are not scared of fielders. They can hit the ball over to the head of a fielder standing at the mid-on boundary for a six or maybe getting out while attempting the same.
“Fielders don’t matter anymore. You get caught at mid-on, you get caught at mid-on. There is not batter in the world who goes out now and thinks that they can’t hit a six,” he concluded.
India defeated England recently in the twenty20 series and Hardik Pandya played crucial role in the victory for Men in Blue, especially in the last match with the bat. Hence Pietersen praised him high for his ability to hit the six at any moment in the game and that makes him special player at the end of innings.
Interview conducted by Betway Insider.
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