Krunal Pandya makes early impact on T20I debut

After an expensive first over, the all-rounder stifled Windies to finish with one for 15.

Published : Nov 04, 2018 22:36 IST , kolkata

A left-arm spinner with subtle variations and a handy lower-order batsman, Krunal Pandya is an integral part of the successful IPL side Mumbai Indians.
A left-arm spinner with subtle variations and a handy lower-order batsman, Krunal Pandya is an integral part of the successful IPL side Mumbai Indians.
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A left-arm spinner with subtle variations and a handy lower-order batsman, Krunal Pandya is an integral part of the successful IPL side Mumbai Indians.

Krunal Pandya is an aberration in Indian cricket. A rare hand to get his India cap in his late 20s.

However, 27-year-old Krunal, the elder brother of all-rounder Hardik — a fairly regular feature in the National squad — has already made a name for himself — a T20 star of sorts, thanks to his exploits in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The best thing about Krunal is that he always stuck to his strength of being a utility all-rounder. That he has played 43 List-A matches and 62 T20 matches against the only First Class match in 2016 speaks a lot about his potential in this format.

A left-arm spinner with subtle variations and a handy lower-order batsman, Krunal is an integral part of the successful IPL side Mumbai Indians.

Accuracy as a bowler is the biggest plus point of Krunal, who showed it again in his debut for India in the first T20I against West Indies on Sunday.

After leaking 10 runs in his first over, Krunal kept his emotions in check and fought back in style to use the crease and explore different angles to dry up the runs.

His next three overs cost just five runs and he nailed the wicket of his Mumbai Indians teammate Kieron Pollard.

Krunal provides the National team another option in left-arm spin. Now, India has the luxury of experimenting with Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal in crucial future assignments.

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