Hardik Pandya appeared over Roston Chase‘s name in a hilarious error during Star Sports’ post-match coverage of the West Indies vs Papua New Guinea Group C game in the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup. After Roston Chase smashed an unbeaten 42 to guide West Indies to victory, viewers were left startled to see Hardik Pandya’s image in place of the West Indies batsman. The error drew light-hearted remarks from fans on social media, as the image went viral on X.
Many users took the opportunity to bring back comparisons of Hardik Pandya’s likeness to the Caribbean lifestyle. In particular, a clip of Hardik’s brother Krunal comparing him to a Caribbean person went viral.
“If you see a picture of Hardik as a child, you would think that this kid is from the Caribbean, not an Indian kid,” jokes Krunal in the clip taken from Season 3 of the YouTube series ‘What The Duck’.
It’s not a glitch bro!
Proof: pic.twitter.com/aqtzXQUOdC— Cricket Freak (@cricketingfever) June 3, 2024
Hardik Pandya’s Caribbean likeness was also talked about by Sourav Ganguly before in an episode of Breakfast With Champions on YouTube.
“I met Hardik Pandya the other day, it seemed like he is Jamaican-born. He can’t be from Baroda!” said the former India captain on Pandya in a video dating back to 2018.
The tweet also brought a welcome change in social media’s reception of Hardik Pandya, which has been increasingly negative ever since he replaced Rohit Sharma as captain of the Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2024.
Having retained vice-captaincy for the 2024 T20 World Cup, the onus lies on Pandya to provide crucial balance to Team India. He played a brilliant hand of 40 in 23 balls, and picked up a wicket, in India’s warm-up match against Bangladesh.
India kickstart their hunt for a second T20 World Cup title on June 5, taking on Ireland in New York.
