"His captaincy was beautiful to watch and a real lesson to many other captains" - Gary Kirsten on Hardik Pandya's leadership in IPL 2022

Gujarat Titans (GT) batting coach and mentor Gary Kirsten praised Hardik Pandya's captaincy which led to the franchise's fairytale campaign. The all-rounder led the new franchise to the Indian Premier League (IPL) title following a seven-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the final on May 29 (Sunday).

The 28-year-old emerged as a surprise captaincy appointment prior to the mega auction. Several sounded their doubts over the move, with concerns primarily over Hardik Pandya's off-field demeanor. However, the all-rounder responded by becoming the fourth Indian player to lead an IPL franchise to the title.

Claiming Hardik Pandya was a delight to work alongside over the course of the two-month-long tournament, Kirsten said on Cricbuzz:

"His captaincy was beautiful to watch and a real lesson to many other captains. He never chased the spotlight and the profile that comes with captaincy. He remained Hardik Pandya the person - easy to talk to, always asking questions about how he can improve, always humble about his own performance, always a calm energy on the field and always a little quirky off the field."

Pandya only suffered four losses in the tournament enroute to the title. His leadership was a major reason behind GT's success. Following his recent exploits, he earned a recall to the national team squad for the first time this year.

The 28-year-old introduced a huge change to his own game as well by promoting himself up the batting order. Usually donning the role of finisher in the lower middle-order for Mumbai Indians and Team India in the past, Pandya chose to play at No.4 for GT.

Praising Pandya for the way he functioned in the middle order, Kirsten said:

"Hardik Pandya played a massive role as a captain and a very different batting role to what he has done in previous IPLs; he thrived in that space, he loved it. He took on the responsibility of playing more of a middle-order, play-the-situation kind of role rather than just being a hitter at the back, and he did that fantastically."

The move paid dividends as he ended up as the leading run-scorer for the franchise with 487 runs. He was also the second-highest run-scorer among Indians in the tournament, only behind KL Rahul on the list.

"We always knew that if you used David Miller the right way, you could get the most out of him" - Gary Kirsten

Playing one of the most memorable campaigns from the perspective of a middle-order batter, David Miller emerged as a surprise element for several. The hard-hitting Proteas batter was far from a hot prospect in the auction due to his poor returns in the previous editions.

Claiming that the franchise knew what needed to be done to get the best out of Miller, Kirsten said:

"We always knew that if you used David Miller the right way you could get the most out of him."

Kirsten concluded:

We used him really well through the tournament; gave him a little bit of extra batting time rather than just a hitter at the end."

The 32-year-old's composure was crucial, with GT often taking several of their games down to the wire. The 2022 IPL marked Miller's most prolific campaign. He registered 481 runs at an average of 68.71 along with an exceptional strike rate of 142.73.