Asia Cup 2023: "Focus Should Be On Hardik Pandya, You Want Him To Do A Lot Better"- Aakash Chopra

Hardik Pandya is under fire after Inda’s T20I series loss against West Indies. India’s 3-2 series defeat was their first bilateral series loss against the Windies since 2006. Aakash Chopra has criticized Pandya for his below-par performance in the series.

Hardik Pandya scored 77 runs and picked up just four wickets in the five-match T20I series. Chopra feels that Hardik needs to uplift his batting and bowling performance heading into the ODI World Cup.

The 50-over World Cup will be played in India from October 5 to November 19 later this year. Hardik will be rested for the Ireland T20I series. He will make a comeback in the Asia Cup 2023. Chopra in his recent video on his Youtube channel said that the focus should be on Hardik’s form with bat and ball heading into the two tournaments.

You Want Hardik Pandya To Do A Lot Better: Aakash Chopra

“Bowling and batting, that package, I think you want Hardik to do a lot better. Honestly, no one is talking about this until now. When we lost an ODI as well, the talk was about the youngsters not doing well but the focus should be on Hardik Pandya because he is an extremely important player” said Chopra.

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Chopra further pointed out that Hardik has not been at his best with the bat lately. He scored 70 off 52 balls in the final ODI against West Indies. However, he has scored very little since then.

“If we talk about his batting performances in the last 10 ODIs, he scored an unbeaten 70 off 52 recently in the West Indies, where the start was extremely slow, but he accelerated towards the end. If we leave aside a 12-ball 14 as it was a very small knock, there are only two innings where he has scored more runs than the balls he has faced” added Chopra.

Hardik has scored 280 runs at an average of 31.11 and a strike rate of 97.22 in the 10 ODI innings he has played this year. Chopra wants him to score with a better strike rate considering the number that he bats in ODIs.

“It doesn’t speak highly of him finishing the game extremely fast. We have to keep the strike rate in mind because his primary role is as a finisher. He is not going to play at No. 4. There you need a strike rate close to 150 and we are talking of it being less than 100. So it’s not actually matching” Aakash Chopra concluded saying.

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