Strong catch by Hardik PandyaImage Credit source: PTI
How Team India’s performance will be in the T20 World Cup 2026 will depend on whether star all-rounder Hardik Pandya is able to show his strength in the tournament or not. The same will be expected this time too from Hardik, who played a big role in the Indian team’s title win in the last World Cup. Not only in batting or bowling, but also in fielding, Hardik can make a big difference in the tournament. A glimpse of how he can help the team through fielding was seen in the third T20 match between India and New Zealand, where Hardik took a surprising catch in the very first over.
In the third match of the T20 series in Guwahati, the Indian team came to bowl first. This time Arshdeep Singh was not there so young pacer Harshit Rana started the bowling. New Zealand got its first blow on the third ball of the over, when Devon Conway was out. With this, Harshit Rana made the Kiwi opener his victim for the fifth consecutive time in this tour. Harshit had sent Conway back to the pavilion in all three matches of the ODI series. Then he got a place in the team only in two matches of this series and in both the matches the Indian pacer took the wicket of Conway.
Harshit did this amazing thing but this would not have been possible if Hardik had not shown his amazing work. What happened was that Conway tried to play a shot over mid-off but the ball did not hit the middle of his bat completely. In this situation the shot did not go very far. But the ball was out of reach of Hardik, posted at mid-off. In such a situation, he took two steps back and in the same position, jumped high in the air backwards. Hardik caught the ball in a surprising manner but fell on the field. Despite this, he did not let the ball fall and gave India its first success.
Talking about the match, Team India entered this match with the intention of winning the series. In this match, the Indian team made two changes in the playing-11. Fast bowler Arshdeep Singh and spinner Varun Chakraborty, who were part of the playing-11 that won the last two matches, were rested from this match. In such a situation, star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah returned in place of Arshdeep, while leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi also got a chance. In this way, Bishnoi returned to the playing-11 of Team India after 11 months.