EXCLUSIVE
Follow UsHardik Pandya’s batting position has been a bone of contention this season so far. Is No. 4 too high for him or should he bat at five or six? The Gujarat Titans (GT) skipper has batted at four in the two matches this season so far and has registered scores of 33 and 31, helping his side to a win on both occasions. With ball in hand, he did incredibly well against Delhi Capitals (DC) in the previous game, finishing with 1 for 22 in his four overs.
Former Sri Lanka all-rounder in a chat with Cricket.com believes that fact that Pandya is leading from the front has rubbed off well on the rest of the team.
"I like what he is doing. [If] he comes in later in an innings, of course, the strike-rate is up and he makes an impact,” Arnold said.
“But if he plays more balls, score more runs and quietly gets his strike-rate up and set himself up for the death overs, where he is in a better position to play those big shots, I think he will be more destructive.
“The fact that he is getting out there and trying to do the business is rubbing off on the team. It's a captain leading from the front is exactly what you want. There's a lot more to come from Pandya. He really has not lived up to expectations, the hype that goes with him. It has been in patches. This is the opportunity and he's made a great start.”
GT take on Punjab Kings (PBKS), who have won two of their three games so far in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 next.
Speaking of PBKS’ batting Arnold is happy that they have a plan in place and have been able to execute it well so far.
“They are playing to their strengths. They have a clear plan in place. That's what it comes down to - to be clear in what you want to do and execute that,” Arnold said of PBKS’ batting.
“Over the 20 overs, it's not gone to plan right through. There have been instances when they have been dropping off but the most it falls in place they will start batting teams out of the games. That's what you can expect with that clear attitude.
“That second game [vs KKR], they fell in a heap and you'd expect that from time to time by being dashers. But they came back against CSK with the same plan with the batters playing a little more responsibly.
“The moment they put pressure on the bowlers they are able to go on. You talk about anchors, there's one crucial player who has not contributed. He starts scoring runs, the dashers and the anchor will also score pretty quickly. I'm talking about the captain Mayank Agarwal.”
Arnold also spoke highly of fast bowler Vaibhav Arora, who picked up 2 for 21 on his IPL debut against CSK. He further adds that as a bowling unit, PBKS are coming together nicely.
“There's a lot to like about what Punjab did [vs CSK]. There's Rabada and they had two debutants - one with the bat and one with the ball. How good was Arora? I like what he brought to the table,” Arnold who has scored over 5,000 runs and picked up 51 wickets for Sri Lanka across formats said.
“The way he moves the ball, he can move it either way. He's not express. So, Mayank Agarwal has to use him at the top like he did in the previous game and that gives them that variety. The bowling quietly coming together. Even [Liam] Livingstone in the spin department, there's [Rahul] Chahar. That's looking like a good attack and a good team in fact,” he added.
