Happy Birthday Hardik Pandya: Lesser known facts about Baroda boy

Hardik Pandya, who is considered the next 'Kapil Dev' of India turned 24 today. The player was born on 11 October 1993. Hardik represents India in all format of the game, other than representing India the player plays for Baroda in domestic cricket and Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

The right-handed batsman rose to fame for his outstanding performance in the champions trophy final 2017 against India's arch-rival Pakistan. Hardik also won the man of the series award against 5 matches One day International series against Australia.

Here are some lesser-known facts about Indian cricketer:

1- During the school days, Hardik Pandya had failed in the Ninth Class examination. After this, he left studies and shifted his focus completely on cricket.

2- Former India wicket-keeper Kiran More did not take any fees for the first three years to teach the tricks of cricket to Hardik Pandya and his brother Krupal Pandya. Both the Pandya brothers used to go to Kiran More's academy in Baroda to learn cricket.

3- Earlier, when Pandya used to play domestic cricket, Hardik did not even have his own bat. He asked for his bat from Irfan Pathan during the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2014 and Pathan did help him by giving his bat.

4- In the T20 match against Australia on 26 January 2016, Hardik Pandya made his debut in international cricket. In the match played in Adelaide, Dhoni gave him bowl for bowling in the 8th over. Pandya threw 11 balls in this over because he had thrown five wide bowls. Pandya gave away 19 runs in this over, which is the record of the highest run by any bowler in the first over of his debut T20 match.

5- When Hardy Pandya made his debut in ODI cricket, it was a historical moment for him because the former captain and all-rounder Kapil Dev handed him the blue hat of Team India. It is also a matter of pride for Hardik that today he is being compared to Kapil Dev.