“He has not done a lot of hitting there as well. So that is also a problem”, Aakash Chopra on Hardik Pandya T20I performances

Aakash Chopra has highlighted that Hardik Pandya’s performance as a lower-middle-order batter in T20I cricket has not been up to his explosive standards recently. During the recent five-match T20I series, in which the West Indies beat India 3-2, Hardik struggled to perform well.

He scored 77 runs in four innings, with an average of 25.67 and a strike rate of 110.00, which were both below par. In a video on his YouTube channel, Chopra mentioned Hardik’s uncertain captaincy against the West Indies and his declining T20I performance over the past year.

Aakash Chopra said “If we see his stats as a batter also in T20Is from 15th August (2022) to 15th August (2023), he has played 25 matches, among those who have batted at No. 4 or lower, he is third from bottom in terms of strike rate. He has not done a lot of hitting there as well. So that is also a problem.”

He noted that in his last 10 T20I innings, Hardik rarely managed to score at a run-a-ball rate. During this period, Hardik accumulated only 188 runs at an average of 23.50 and a strike rate of 110.58. He reached the 30-run mark just once and hit only seven sixes out of the 170 deliveries he faced.

Moreover he added “The striking power has been seen slightly less. If you see his international numbers for the last little while, you will find that he hasn’t done any significant hitting. In the last 10 T20Is, you see only two or three instances where the runs are more than the balls, which is not a good story.”