Swashbuckling Indian all-rounder has revealed that advice from Mahendra Singh Dhoni had helped him overcome the pressure situation that a cricketer often finds himself in during a match.

“MS told me once that if you want to get rid off the pressure of your own pressure then stop looking at your score on the scoreboard. Put the team in front and you will never feel the pressure. To be honest, since then I have never felt that kind of pressure that I used to feel earlier,” Pandya was seen saying on an India Today show.

Pandya also spoke about Rahul Dravid and said “The Wall’ had made him understand that there was nothing called a “natural game” in cricket. He talked about a moment when he was in the India A team and Dravid was the head coach.

“So what happened was, I was with the Baroda state team. I got a call from BCCI, saying I might have to fly to Australia as Vijay Shankar has got an injury or something. So I went there and in a meeting someone said that I am going to play my natural game. So, Rahul Dravid did not agree to that and said there is no (such) thing as natural game,” he said.

“If you want to to be a smart cricketer, you have to play according to the situation. If you are 50 for 5 and you go out and get out while trying to hit a six and then say later that I was just playing my natural game then it is foolish. There is nothing natural, it is all situation based cricket,” he further added.

The 26-year-old cricketer, who has been out of the Indian team since the ICC World Cup last year, was all set to return after an operation on injured back as he was selected in India A squad travelling to New Zealand.

However, he was dropped from the squad after he failed a fitness Test in Mumbai on Saturday. Though Pandya had himself said that he was looking to get fit in time for the second half of the New Zealand tour, he was picked for the shadow tour by the national selectors.

“Yes, unfortunately, Pandya has failed the fitness test and has been withdrawn from the team. Vijay Shankar is on the flight to New Zealand in his place,” a BCCI source was quoted as saying by IANS.