India have been blessed with several legendary cricketers. There was a time when Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and Anil Kumble were top performers in international cricket. However, Hardik Pandya didn’t name one of India’s top stars as his idol.

The veteran all-rounder called former India opener Wasim Jaffer his idol, who is the highest run-getter in the history of the Ranji Trophy.

In 31 Tests for India, Jaffer scored 1,944 runs at an average of 34.10. However, despite failing to play international cricket for a long time, he is one of the consistent run-scorers in domestic cricket.

The right-handed batter amassed nearly 20,000 first-class runs at an average of more than 50, with over 12,000 coming in the Ranji Trophy.

Pandya took Jaffer’s name during the Naman Awards organised by the BCCI on March 15.

Meanwhile, Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi picked Yuvraj Singh and Brian Lara as their idols, respectively. Sanju Samson named Sachin Tendulkar as his idol.

Shubman Gill and Smriti Mandhana were named the Best International Cricketers in the Men’s and Women’s categories, respectively. While Gill won the award for the second time, Mandhana was honoured for the fifth time in her career.

Roger Binny, Rahul Dravid and Mithali Raj were given the Col. C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award.

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