Hardik Pandya was at his brutal best in South Africa T20Is.
An often overlooked aspect of Hardik Pandya’s career is how effectively he bounces back every time he returns from a long injury layoff. He works on certain areas that have troubled him and comes with a sharpened game. That’s precisely what happened in the recent T20I series against South Africa.
After missing a lot of action, Hardik finally regained full fitness, coming in his best batting form and intent against a decent bowling attack. He had earlier struggled with slow starts and was troubled massively with short balls before. But he showed decent improvements in the comeback series against the Proteas.
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A major issue with Hardik Pandya in T20Is was his inability to accelerate right from the start. This pattern became too obvious in the last couple of years, where he ended up playing multiple negative-impact knocks. Since 2024 and before the South Africa series, Pandya had a strike rate of 118.96 and a boundary % of 15.51 in the first 10 balls.
However, it changed against South Africa, where his strike rate surged to 203.33 with a boundary % of 30 in the initial 10 deliveries. While the numbers themselves tell a complete story, Hardik’s intent was palpable, as he looked to take bowlers down right from the start. Sure, the decks also played a role, but even on flat surfaces, he had previously failed to get going.
Take his T20 World Cup 2024 knock, for instance. With Suryakumar Yadav going berserk from one end, Hardik Pandya needed to match the tempo, but he instead ended up playing a slow knock. In the first 15 balls, he could only score 14, and while he tried to cover at the end, he could still score only 32 runs at a strike rate of 133.33.
The biggest reason for his refreshing intent has been his improved game against spinners. Apart from having obvious issues with shorter-length deliveries by pace, Hardik also had problems against spinners and would often end up playing too many dot balls. Since 2024 and before the South Africa series, he could only strike at 118.58 and played around 37.2% dot balls against slow bowlers in T20Is.
However, his strike rate jumped to 245, and dot balls were reduced to a mere 25% against South Africa. He took down the likes of George Linde and Keshav Maharaj and was full of intent throughout the rubber. This will help him counter spinners better in the home T20 World Cup, especially since his batting role will be higher in that tournament.
Suryakumar Yadav is struggling with form, while Tilak Varma also has issues against high-pace spin. Hence, India need Hardik to bat with the same technique and intent in the middle order and do the heavy lifting against slow bowlers. That will give Suryakumar and Tilak the best chance to succeed in their respective roles.
As a bowler, Hardik’s credentials were never in doubt, but his recent batting issues were becoming too hard to ignore. Fortunately, he seems to be getting into his groove just at the right time, which would please team management. However, the key is to maintain the same intent, as India enter a crucial phase in T20Is.
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