As the Gujarat Titans roadshow made its way down the Sabarmati riverfront on Monday evening, not far from the hermitage where Mahatma Gandhi had once resided, thousands of fans cheered the victorious home team in Ahmedabad.
After 15 long, fallow years of the Indian Premier League’s existence, India’s seventh-largest city had finally made a thumping debut, with a title triumph no less. And the proud cultural ethos of the state of Gujarat, from where India’s incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails, now also has a maiden IPL trophy to display in the world’s largest cricket stadium.
Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, the six biggest Indian cities, have had an IPL team based at their main stadiums since the start of the league, way back in 2008. Mohali/Chandigarh (Punjab Kings) and Jaipur (Rajasthan Royals) have been around since then as well.
The last-mentioned team even used the Narendra Modi Stadium as a base for a while, but Ahmedabad, and Gujarat, were always thirsting for a home team to cheer for.
So when the franchise was formed at the start of this year, Gujarat Titans aptly chose to have the state in their nomenclature instead of the city, in an attempt to appeal to the larger Gujarati linguistic and cultural identity.
But pandemic-enforced restrictions meant that even when the city and state eventually got their own franchise, Gujarat Titans had to play all their league games in Mumbai and Pune in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra.
As they won eight of their first nine matches in a scarcely believable debut, it seemed too good of a story to continue.
Surely leaving too much of finishing for the finishers to do would catch up with them eventually? Surely the captain, already under an injury cloud, could not keep batting higher up the order than he was used to and also keep bowling a few overs?
Even Hardik Pandya himself admitted halfway into the season that his team could be using all its beginner’s luck up too early.
But as it turned out, it was more a lot of pluck than good fortune. Other teams kept hoping for the GT juggernaut to stop, but it just did not, racking up another nerveless chase in the Qualifier 1 at Eden Gardens to earn themselves a break of four days for the final.
‘Papa’ Pandya prospers
As he said after the final, Pandya (affectionately called ‘papa’ on the franchise social-media handles) had kept his best in reserve for the big occasion.
A highly intelligent spell of 4-0-17-3 devastated RR, accounting for three key batsmen - the tournament’s highest run-getter Jos Buttler, captain Sanju Samson and dangerous hitter Shimron Hetmyer. And even if it was a small chase to the cup, as Sunil Gavaskar might say, someone had to go out and actually make the damn runs, so Pandya took it upon himself to nip some growing nerves in the bud.
What lies in wait for Gujarat Titans if the IPL reverts to the normal home-and-away format and they play half their league games in Ahmedabad next year? Well, the roar that greeted Pandya was louder than the cheers for Bollywood star Ranveer Singh at the IPL closing ceremony.
Watched by a crowd of almost 105,000, whatever Pandya did was box-office entertainment for a legion of fans that had waited years for this day.
Jai jai garavi Gujarat [victory to proud Gujarat], went the DJ’s cry at the ground, repeating the state anthem and constantly reminding the vocal fans of their heritage.
And if someone had come to represent that pride over the course of the past two months, it had been Hardik Pandya, who may not be from Ahmedabad but hailing from the Surat region as he does, is as much a Gujarati as anybody.
How much Pandya’s stock has soared after IPL 2022 is evident from the fact that his name is being whispered by some as a potential India captain.
Not only has he led from the front with both bat and ball, Pandya has been absolutely hands-on in the field, aided by the equally hands-on coach Ashish Nehra, with whom he is said to share a great equation.
He was constantly in the bowlers’ ear at mid-on or mid-off, perhaps a bit too much at times, but then he is also a bowler himself, so will always have feedback to give to his fellow operators.
He took his time to set the field, and painstakingly made sure he had got it right to the best of his knowledge. He also rang in the field changes instantly if he felt the line or plan of attack needed to change. It was thrilling to witness the country’s finest fast-bowling all-rounder (by a country mile) transform himself into an authoritative leader who commanded the respect of his players and support staff.
Spare a thought, however, for the valiant Rajasthan Royals, who had to take the longer route to the final, which they reached for the first time after the magical inaugural season under the inspirational leadership of the late Shane Warne.
They just caved in on the night, but that should take nothing away from a season in which they were truly behind only GT, as duly reflected in the points table too.
Their bowling, with a first-choice attack comprising Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna and Obed McCoy, can win them games regularly if the lower middle order can acquire some more firepower at the death. Riyan Parag is a fine talent but he is just not there yet.
For now, though, the moment belongs to Hardik Pandya and Gujarat Titans.
As the franchise tagline ‘aava de’ (bring it on) went, they took on all comers, including several multiple-time champion sides, and prevailed by some distance.
