Hardik Pandya recently made a comment that it is okay to be a unique captain if he ended up losing the ODI series against the West Indies cricket team. The Indian cricket team rested Rohit Sharma for the last two ODIs of the series against the West Indies. However, India lost the second ODI under Hardik, forcing the series into a decider.
At the toss of the third ODI match, Pandya mentioned it would have been okay even if his team lost a bilateral series against West Indies for the first time since 2006. However, India crushed West Indies by 200 runs and won the series by 2-1. While Pandya could not join that unique list, here are some unique records held by him as captain.
1. Hardik Pandya is the only captain to win IPL with a new entrant team in IPL
Apart from IPL 2008, only once has a team won the league while coming in as a new entrant. That team is the Gujarat Titans, who won the championship under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya in 2022.
2. Hardik Pandya is the only captain to win IPL with an Indian coach
Pandya and Ashish Nehra’s combination has worked like magic for the Gujarat Titans. Interestingly, Nehra was the first Indian head coach to win the IPL trophy, making Pandya the first captain to win the title with an Indian head coach as well.
3. Only Indian captain to lose 2 back-to-back T20Is against West Indies in bilateral series
India lost two matches of the ongoing bilateral series against the West Indies cricket team. Pandya has become the first Indian captain to lose two consecutive T20Is against the Men in Maroon while playing in a bilateral series.
The first T20I was at the Brian Lara Stadium, where Romario Shepherd defended 10 runs off the last over. The second was in Guyana, where Akeal Hosein and Alzarri Joseph helped West Indies win by two wickets.
