Hardik Pandya surpasses Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah in legendary list after taking 2 wickets against England

Hardik Pandya played his first game of the year for Team India on Wednesday (January 22) when the Men in Blue took on England in the first T20I at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

The Indian all-rounder played a key role with the ball as India beat England by seven wickets to take the lead in the series. Asked to bat first, England were bowled out for a modest total of 132 runs. They were 74/4 at the end of the 10th over and seemed destined to post a challenging total above 150.

However, the Indian bowlers did not allow England to finish their innings strongly and restricted them to a modest total. Captain Jos Buttler led a lone battle for England, scoring 68 runs off 44 balls with the help of eight fours and a couple of sixes.

Apart from Buttler, no other English player could reach the 20-run mark. For India, Varun Chakravarthy was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3 wickets for 23 runs off his 4 overs. On the other hand, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel took two wickets each.

Also read: Look: 4, 4, 6, 4, 4! Sanju Samson destroys Gus Atkinson in the 1st T20I at Eden Gardens

With the bat, India chased down the total with utmost ease. The hosts crossed the finish line in the 14th over losing only 3 wickets. Opener Abhishek Sharma played with the bat, smashing 79 runs off just 34 balls with the help of 5 fours and 8 sixes. Sanju Samson also started but did not last long and went for 26 runs.

Hardik Pandya leads ahead of Jasprit Bumrah:

Two wickets in the first T20I against England helped Hardik Pandya move above Jasprit Bumrah as well as Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the list of Indian bowlers with the most wickets in the shortest format of the game.

Hardik Pandya was in fifth place with 89 wickets before the start of the match. He was tied with Bumrah for the number of wickets and one wicket short of Bhuvneshwar’s tally. The two wickets took his tally to 91 in T20Is, moving him ahead of Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah.

He is now third on the overall list behind Yuzvendra Chahal and Arshdeep. Meanwhile, Arshdeep broke Chahal’s record in the same game to become India’s all-time leading wicket-taker in T20Is. The left-arm pacer now has 97 wickets, one more than Chahal.