Asia Cup 2023: : "May Be It Was The Combo Pack Of Him And Ashish Nehra": Aakash Chopra On Hardik Pandya's Difference In Captaincy Styles In IPL And International Cricket

Hardik Pandya’s captaincy for India was criticized after they lost the T20I series against West Indies. Hardik became the first Indian captain to lose a bilateral series against West Indies since 2006.

Hardik’s overall performance and his captaincy came under the scanner in the recently concluded series against West Indies. He will now take a break from the Ireland series and come back into the national squad for the Asia Cup 2023.

Aakash Chopra in his recent Youtube video spoke about Hardik’s difference in captaincy styles while saying that his captaincy is still a work in progress.

“He could be the Indian team’s captain in the 2024 T20 World Cup. In captaincy, at the moment it seems like he is a work in progress. He has won the Gujarat Titans the title once and took them to the final once” said Chopra.

He further said that Ashish Nehra’s presence in the GT camp might have influenced the style of captaincy that he sets for his IPL franchise.

“He has captained in only two seasons and captained amazingly well in both years. When he captains that side, there is a clear pattern. It’s all almost predictable. You got surprised one or two times but other than that, you couldn’t have found a mistake in his captaincy. Maybe it was the combo pack of him and Ashish Nehra” Chopra further said.

The former Indian cricketer further said that Hardik has no set pattern while he is leading the Indian team as opposed to his IPL franchise where he follows a set template.

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There Is No Template Or Pattern When Hardik Pandya Leads India: Aakash Chopra

“However, when he is captaining the Indian team, there is a lot of up and down. There is no template or pattern, which is alright as you can surprise the opposition team. It’s okay if your own team is getting benefitted because of that but what if your team’s players are unable to get prepared” Chopra further explained.

Aakash Chopra concluded by saying that Hardik did not use Yuzvendra Chahal effectively against West Indies. He bowled 18 overs in the series picking up just five wickets from five matches. He also blamed the skipper for not using Axar Patel and Mukesh Kumar effectively as well.

“Yuzi (Yuzvendra) Chahal becomes half the bowler while bowling in the powerplay. You don’t come to know whether Axar Patel is a bowler or batter, or what he is doing. Mukesh Kumar bowls only at the death. You bowl at times with the new ball and don’t do that on other occasions. It just leads to a bit more confusion is what I feel” concluded Chopra.

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