Aakash Chopra is concerned about the way Hardik Pandya is playing and says, “The striking power has been seen slightly less.”

Hardik’s alarming decline in strike rates in recent T20 matches was recently broken out statistically by Aakash Chopra. In Rohit Sharma’s absence, Hardik Pandya was doing a fantastic job leading India’s T20I team. The Baroda all-rounder’s first failure as India’s skipper, though, was the 3-2 loss to the West Indies in the five-match T20I series. His leadership abilities as well as his batting form have been under scrutiny since that defeat.

The 29-year-old is anticipated to play a significant role in India’s upcoming campaigns for the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup, but the figures do not make for compelling watching. If we look at his T20I statistics from August 15, 2022 to August 15, 2023, he has played 25 matches and has a strike rate that is third from the bottom among those who batted at No. 4 or lower. He hasn’t done much hitting there either. Consequently, that is also a concern, Chopra noted on his YouTube channel.

“There has been a minor decrease in the hitting power. You can tell that he hasn’t hit particularly hard if you look at his recent international numbers. There are only two or three situations where the runs exceed the balls in the last 10 T20Is, which is not a positive narrative, the player continued.

For Hardik Pandya, the 2022 IPL was fantastic, while the 2023 season was just alright.  Aakash Chopra

Hardik was outstanding as the captain of Gujarat Titans, a new team in the Indian Premier League in 2022, scoring 487 runs at an average of 44.27 and a strike rate of 131.27. During the championship-winning season, he also recorded eight wickets.

But in 2023, the seasoned player had a significant decline in runs and wickets, scoring only 346 runs in 16 games at an average of 31.45. The strike rate, on the other hand, increased slightly to 136.76. With the ball, he only managed to take three wickets.

He struck exceptionally well, the strike rate was high, and there were more runs and wickets in the 2022 IPL, which was fantastic. The IPL in 2023 was passable. In addition to scoring fewer runs, he only took three wickets, and his strike rate wasn’t particularly impressive, according to Chopra.

Hardik managed just 77 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 110 in the recently finished T20I series against the West Indies. He finished with four wickets at an economy of 8.40, indicating a respectable bowling performance. With less than two months till the ODI World Cup, Hardik will be hoping to make a major impression at the next Asia Cup.