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What’s Hardik Pandya known to be on the Indian cricketing circuit? Whatever you have heard, we are here to debunk those mythical theories.
Hardik Pandya is a solid finisher
(Note: Only middle-order batters (4-8) have been taken into consideration with min 50 balls)
Okay, where do we even start here? We have a list of finishers, a lot - to be honest. One of their most important roles is to start from the word ‘go’, which Hardik used to do at one point in his career.
But even in that far-fetched list of top finishers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) over the last two years, sighting Pandya is a miraculous task. With a minimum of 50 deliveries at the death, Hardik is not even in the top 25 finishers in the tournament.
Forget that; he wasn’t even on the list of the top 15 amongst Indians.
Since IPL 2023, at the death overs (16-20), Hardik has scored 101 runs. That’s not as bad, but when you look at the columns next to it - 61 balls - and an average of 14.43, your thoughts immediately go to the strike rate.
After all, if you are a good finisher, one of the crucial aspects is to have a solid strike rate. But not Hardik, who has the sixth-worst strike rate for any finisher. Imagine walking out in a mammoth run chase, and in front of you is a batter with a strike rate of 165.6 at the death.
Okay, at least boundaries. He must be good at something.
Sorry to break the bubble, but on average, finishers find a boundary very frequently, one every 4.06 deliveries. Then there is the asterisk: not everyone, at least definitely not Hardik, who only scores a boundary every 5.1 deliveries.
What makes that worse is that he has a dot-ball percentage of 29.50, quite high for a finisher.
Only four batters in the last two years have struggled more than the 30-year-old, and there is a good chance that India might take the other two on the list - Axar Patel (5.8) and Ravindra Jadeja (6.4) - to the T20 World Cup.
You would naturally assume that he’s playing the role of being there till the end, right? Even if you consider that part of being a finisher, he’s getting out every 8.7 deliveries, which means he has more misses than hits.
At least Hardik hits spinners
Fun.
Hardik being good against spin is quite a natural thought, but it has been a long time since that materialised.
His move to Gujarat Titans saw him don that No.4 position, wherein he could take more time to acclimate to the conditions and take on spinners effectively. That’s where your memory isn’t serving you right.
Throughout his time at the Titans, Pandya has scored 351 runs against the tweakers, and worst is that he has only struck at 128.57, finding a boundary every 7.4 deliveries. You would not want it from someone who primarily bats in the middle order.
Come on, he was a good anchor.
What’s your idea of an anchor? Someone who has an average of 40 and a strike rate of 140? If your thought of an anchor is that, then sorry, Hardik hasn’t made the cut. During his stint for Gujarat, where he was primarily an anchor, Pandya’s batting numbers read 833 runs @37.86 and SR of 133.5.
Not even cut the cloth for an ideal anchor.
In those two seasons, neither was Hardik amongst the top run-scorers nor were his balls/boundaries close to being at the top. In fact, it was somewhere close to the bottom of a list of 92 batters (min 100 balls), showing his incapability of finding boundaries at ease.
If you look further at his BPD (28.4), he stayed far more at the crease than needed without impacting the game. Indeed, cricket isn’t played on Excel sheets, but numbers do paint a big picture.
As it stands, Hardik as a batter is a big misfit in an Indian setup. Neither is he a worthy anchor to displace some of the best in that department (the jury is still not out on anchors) nor is he in the best possible shape to take the mantle of being India’s top finisher.
Are you in your right mind?
Hardik’s all-round ability is such that you won’t find anyone close to him in the domestic setup. That’s true. The impact player rule has almost killed the growth of all-rounders in the country. Even the ones that are in existence are barely surviving. Some don’t even bowl, considering teams can have proper bowling/batting options. But it isn’t the same case in international cricket.
Having said that, an all-rounder should make an impact both with the bat and the ball.
Yaw, Hardik is a great asset with the ball.
(All records since 2022 unless stated otherwise)
Since becoming a captain, Hardik has often used himself as a new-ball bowler. Let’s get to that part immediately. In 18 innings where the all-rounder has taken the new ball, his numbers are quite underwhelming.
He’s bowled 18 overs either in the first over or the second over of an innings. In those 18 overs, the all-rounder averages 28 with the ball - exactly borderline average. One wicket every 3.6 overs with the new ball.
So what? He is at least economical. Let’s debunk all of that purely based on numbers and not gut feels. Amongst all the bowlers to have bowled in the first two overs (minimum 10 overs), the average economy rate is 6.8.
Guess what? Hardik conceded runs at 7.8, almost one run over the average. Extending it to the entire powerplay phase, he isn’t even in the top 30 wicket-takers. If you filter it further down (since 2022), only 11 bowlers have an average worse than the Baroda all-rounder.
You could dig deeper to find that he concedes a boundary every four deliveries, which means you are putting your team at a bigger risk than you would generally find at the IPL level. Purely as a captain, Hardik has overbowled himself. You can visually see that, and the numbers most definitely back that.
As a captain, Hardik has bowled 74.3 overs at the IPL, averaging 45.13 with the ball. You know what that means exactly, don’t you? In this season, the Baroda man has only picked up four wickets with the ball, averaging a staggering 56.75.
In the powerplay, where he has bowled 36% of his overs, he averages 76, only behind the tournament worst - Mohammed Siraj (85.5).
Let me throw this piece of information to you as well.
Only three bowlers have an overall average higher than Hardik’s 56.75 this year, and two last played for India long ago in this format. The other - Shahbaz Ahmed - isn’t even considered as a mainstream bowler for his franchise. This is getting interesting by the stat.
Only one bowler in this year’s competition (min 15 overs) has an economy rate worse than Hardik’s 11.9, and that’s Anrich Nortje (13.4). The more Hardik has bowled this year, the more Mumbai faced a setback.
Hardik isn’t picking wickets either, evident by his high average and the fact that he has a strike rate of 29.8, one of the worst for pacers since IPL 2022. In the last two years, Hardik is averaging 50.5, with a strike rate of 35 in the powerplay.
That’s picking a wicket in nearly six powerplay overs. That’s criminal!
You thought all the while that people were joking about Hardik’s poor form?
If not Hardik, then who?
One of the biggest reasons that we are still heralding Hardik as the all-rounder is that India has a dearth of such talent. But there are ways to play around with the combination, which the Men in Blue have done a lot over the last few years.
Combination 1: Shivam Dube - Ravindra Jadeja - Axar Patel
In terms of pure personnel from the ongoing IPL, there are a few that they can choose from, starting with CSK’s Shivam Dube, whose batting potential is already there for the world to see.
Read: There’s no way India can ignore Shivam Dube 2.0
But alongside that, Dube also has the knack of picking up key wickets, as seen in his last outing for India against Afghanistan.
Pairing him with Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel could be an option for the Men in Blue.
Combination 2: Shivam Dube - Ravindra Jadeja - Riyan Parag
If India play Hardik Pandya, the question would be about where best they could use him with the bat. That’s where someone like Riyan Parag could come to play. Not only has Parag shown his six-hitting ability this year, but he has also shown an appetite for runs. Alongside that, his mystery bowling, too, could come into play.
Combine that with Dube and Jadeja, India could go out with nearly seven bowling options if they wish to. It could also mean that they could elongate their batting and not be neither here nor there.
Combination 3: 6 batters, 5 bowlers
For this combination to become a reality, and for India to not feature Hardik Pandya, they would need to feature one certain Sanju Samson in the top three. Considering his form, that’s not totally out of the realm. If they do that, India could potentially play five specialist bowlers and six specialist batters.
In that case, they wouldn’t have to depend on Hardik to make up for anything - either with the bat or the ball - which means they would have an upgrade, something that won’t be guaranteed if Hardik continued to be part of the Indian XI.
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