“Still a work in progress”: Parthiv Patel on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy as India’s lost T20I series against West Indies.

Parthiv Patel has highlighted some areas for improvement in Hardik Pandya’s captaincy, particularly in terms of bowling changes. According to the former cricketer, Pandya’s decisions regarding bowling rotations weren’t up to the desired standard during the recently concluded T20I series against the West Indies.

Patel’s observations come on the back of India’s 3-2 series loss to the West Indies, where the hosts emerged victorious in the fifth T20I by eight wickets. Patel also emphasized that Pandya needs to enhance his batting performance in preparation for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

It’s notable that this series defeat marked Hardik Pandya’s first bilateral series loss as a captain. In addition to his captaincy concerns, Pandya’s batting form also drew scrutiny, as he managed only 77 runs across four innings with a less-than-impressive strike rate of 110.00.

Parthiv Patel (on CricBuzz) said “Against Nicholas Pooran, he (Hardik Pandya) gave that over to Axar Patel and not bowling Yuzvendra Chahal. Bowling changes and the utilisation of the bowlers are something that tells me that Hardik, the captain for India, is still a work in progress. And there is obviously a little concern about his batting. He needs runs. He didn’t get runs in the IPL, he didn’t get runs in the last couple of series as well. India would want to get some runs for Hardik Pandya in the Asia Cup or the series against Australia before the World Cup.”