Former opener Wasim Jaffer pointed out the areas of concern in Hardik Pandya’s batting in the recently concluded white-ball series between India and West Indies. Pandya led the Indian team in the last two ODIs in the absence of Rohit Sharma while he was also the designated captain for the five-match T20I series.
The flamboyant all-rounder scored 82 runs in three ODIs, while the T20Is also didn’t work in his favour as batter where he managed just 77 runs in 4 innings. His strike rate in the T20I series was also an area of concern – 110.
Jaffer was critical of Pandya’s batting and said he looked rusty throughout the tour and said that the 28-year-old failed to rotate the strike at the start of the innings.
“Well, it has been a concern. He looks little rusty. We can’t say that the free-flowing Hardik Pandya who comes in and strikes it sweetly. Doesn’t mean hitting sixes but striking it nicely, rotating the strike. Apart from the fifty he scored in the 3rd ODI, where also he started very very slowly, and picked it up in the slog overs. But even then he looked a little rusty,” Jaffer told ESPNCricinfo.
In the series decider on Sunday, Pandya scored 14 runs off 18 balls at a poor strike rate of 77.78. He started slow and decided to shift gears in the 17th over but got caught near the boundary line.
Jaffer suggested that whenever Hardik came out to bat in the middle the momentum dropped as he started a bit slow which put pressure on the other batters. The former opener wants Hardik to take notes on what went wrong for him in batting and improve them for the next series.
“That’s a concern for me. Looking at how Hardik Pandya batted in the series, that was a big concern. Not everytime he is going to start slowly, and he is going to finish strongly. We could see this during this series as well. As soon as he comes, the momentum drops down, the strike rate comes down and puts the pressure on the other guys and the dug out as well. Something for him to worry, take note and improve,” said Jaffer.
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