Hardik Pandya, from the fringes to the forefront

With his versatile talents, Hardik Pandya is the kind of unique cricketer the Indian team has always wanted

For some reason, Wikipedia has Hardik Pandya’s nickname down as “Hairy”. It remains unclear if the Gujarati twang (“Harry” becoming “Hairy”) is responsible for that, or the sobriquet is actually a tribute to Pandya’s very evident affection for experimenting with different hairstyles. Maybe it’s a bit of both.

The folks at the Mumbai Indians have clearly done a better job, fittingly coming up with — many apologies, Ravindra Jadeja — “Rockstar”. Of late, the crowd — and the opposition — has been swaying to his tunes. The batsmen preceding him have been made to look like perfunctory, meaningless opening acts,