Hardik is Neymar as Neymar could rarely be

Twenty-five seconds into stoppage time in extra time. Neymar has the ball.

Thirty-five seconds into stoppage time in extra time. Brazil have the goal.

Despite the best efforts of a ticking clock and a low block, he found a way through.

A one-two with Rodrygo 30 yards out. Then another with Lucas Paquetá as he makes his run into Croatia’s box. He beats the last defender. He rounds the goalkeeper. And he scores.

A place in the World Cup semi-final was his. And then it wasn’t.

Lucknow Super Giants need 39 off 45 with nine wickets in hand.

Hardik Pandya had top-scored in the first innings with 66 off 50. The highest score by a visiting batter on the toughest pitch in the IPL. And it looked like it wasn’t going to matter all that much.

For the third time in four nights, he was going to lose. Until he didn’t.

Mohammed Shami bowls a sublime 19th over. Mohit Sharma follows him and produces four wickets in four deliveries.

From being unable to defend six runs a ball, Gujarat Titans had gone and defended less than six runs an over.

“Maybe,” Hardik said at the presentation, “this was god is telling us that no it’s okay. I’m not always gonna take from you guys. I’m gonna give you something back as well.”

Hardik Pandya and David Miller guided Gujarat Titans’ chase through the middle BCCI

Divine intervention aside, that World Cup game and this IPL game have another thing in common. They tell the story of how even blindingly talented individuals need a team backing them up.

Neymar can’t do much to fix his situation. In football, players are brought in on the orders of a coach or at the whim of the owner. He is neither.

In cricket, it’s different. Hardik has more power in his hands and, though it is still very early, he is starting to build something special. If he goes all the way again, like he did in 2022, he will become the first man in IPL history to win back-to-back titles with two different franchises.

It feels remarkable that only four years ago, he was on a talk show where he was so impressed with himself he forgot he was being all kinds of wrong. Back then, Hardik possessed a rare gift. He could come in and hit the very first ball he faced for six. And that opened doors he would have only dreamed of growing up in a small town in Gujarat. This one led straight to infamy.

People don’t follow a show-off, but that is a big part of who Hardik is. It actually enables him to be that most fabled of all things. A man for the big occasion. The first time he ever bowled a 20th over in defence of a total, he won India a World Cup game with impossible odds. But that’s the fun part. When you go hunting for glory, you will be confronted by failure. Repeatedly. You have to be strong enough – remain driven enough – to get up every time you are knocked down.

Hardik is. Neymar, too. But only one of them has had the chance to build a team for himself.

David Miller was an IPL outcast in 2022. In the previous five years, he had made 494 runs, with only two fifties, at an average of 26 and a strike rate of 117. Only two – of 10 – franchises showed any interest in him when his name came up for auction. He maintained that his stats – especially in the two seasons before joining Titans – were not so much a reflection of his ability but a consequence of uncertainty. He didn’t know where – or if – he even fit in.

A few months after Rajasthan Royals passed him over when the price hit INR 3 crore, Miller was out there on the field, beating them to a pulp. At the end of it all, when he had 68 runs in 38 balls with three fours, five sixes and a place in the final, he was asked what had changed, and he said, “I think opportunity firstly. I have been given a good role and a good extensive run in the team. I felt extremely backed from the onset.”

These are Hardik’s words from that night. “It kind of shows if you show love and importance to an individual player, he can flourish and how. A lot of people counted David Miller out but for us he was always a match-winner from the time we bought him at the auction. What he did today we always expected from him. But for us it was important to give him the importance, give him that love and give him the clarity as to what we expect from him. And if he fails, it’s okay; it’s just a game.”

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Why have Gujarat Titans been so successful so quickly?

Ravi Shastri on Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra and the factors that have made Gujarat Titans the new force in the IPL

Man management. Gut feel. And faith. All part of the dark art of captaincy.

Hardik sought out players who were themselves seeking someone to believe in them. He gave them the chance they’d always wanted, the support that had been so hard to come by and that bound them to him; made them work miracles for him.

Rahul Tewatia had to slog through seven IPL seasons to cobble the 48 matches he had to his name before Titans came for him. Now, even though he barely gets to bowl, and barely gets to bat, he walks in to work every day knowing he is an indispensable part of a champion side. “Every time we’d be in a tough situation,” he said, “Hardik would say, ‘Oh I know that Tewu will finish the job for us’. What more do you need when the captain shows such confidence in you?”

Tewatia, Josh Little, Noor Ahmad, Vijay Shankar. They’ve been stuck in the margins, having to do their thing in relative obscurity. They were forged by the hunger to prove themselves on a bigger stage. They need this. They hunt this. They’re not great players by themselves, but Titans didn’t need greats. They already had that in Rashid Khan. They just needed people who could play off him. They needed parts to make a whole. Nobody believed they could win in 2022. Now here they are two (or maybe three) games away from going back-to-back.

Hardik appears to understand that captaincy isn’t just about the ideas you take onto the field but the ideals you stand for. It isn’t a particularly difficult lesson to learn. All you have to do is spend some time watching your plans fall apart. And when they do, the only thing that stands between you and defeat are your team-mates and their willingness to put everything on the line.

Hardik has that now. He is Neymar as Neymar could rarely be. A tattooed badass who does the sexiest thing in his sport (hitting sixes and dribbling respectively) with the strength of cohesion behind him.

It won’t be long before India go all in.

Hardik spent his formative years under MS Dhoni. He shaped the most successful franchise in IPL history alongside Rohit Sharma. Soon, he could walk the path of Kapil Dev. Maybe, one day, this fast-bowling allrounder will stand up there on the Lord’s balcony too, the world in his hands.