Former India batter Aakash Chopra has raised questions over India’s T20I skipper Hardik Pandya’s form going into the 2023 ODI World Cup, saying his striking power has been slightly less recently. Pandya was captain as India succumbed to a 2-3 series loss against the West Indies.
Speaking on his Youtube channel, Chopra said over the last 25 matches, Pandya has not done a lot of hitting. Pandya scored 77 runs in the five-match T20I series against the West Indies.
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,” said Chopra.
He went on to say that Pandya’s striking power has been less recently, highlighting the strike rate drop in his last 10 matches. Pandya was criticized after scoring 14 runs off 18 deliveries as India lost the T20I series-decider against West Indies by eight wickets.
“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,” Chopra added.
Speaking about Pandya’s IPL form, Chopra said the Gujarat Titans skipper’ strike rate wasn’t anything special in the 2023 edition. Pandya scored 346 runs in 16 matches n IPL 2023, at a strike rate of 136.76.
“The 2022 IPL was brilliant, where he hit very well, the strike rate was high, the runs and wickets were also more. 2023 was an okay-okay IPL. The runs were also fewer, he picked up only three wickets and the strike rate wasn’t anything special either,” said Chopra.
Pandya will be part of India’s squad for the 2023 Asia Cup, and will take the field against Pakistan on September 2.
