STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Follow UsAfter missing the best part of a year due to a back injury for which he had to undergo surgery, Hardik Pandya returned to action as a completely different batter altogether in the ODIs against Australia in November 2020.
Walking into the series, Pandya carried the reputation of being a ‘dasher’; someone who had the ability to both finish the innings off down the order and change the course of games through impactful cameos.
His numbers reflected the same too: after 38 ODI innings, Pandya was averaging under 30 (29.90) but he more than made up for that with his strike rate of 115.57. Considering he offered precious overs of seam with the ball, his numbers were considered wholly acceptable.
But when news emerged that Pandya was set to predominantly play as a specialist batter against Australia — in order to manage his back — questions started floating around.
‘Do Pandya’s numbers justify making the team as a specialist batter?’
‘Isn’t he too one-dimensional to be featuring as a batter alone?’
‘Does he have the ability to curb his instincts if and when the situation demands?’
The concerns were valid. The pre-2020 Pandya was a lot of things but ‘dynamic batter’ was not one.
This is why the entire world was left stunned when Pandya, in his first international series in over a year, displayed a never-seen-before evolved side of himself. In an extraordinary Player of the Series worthy showing, nothing less than scintillating, the 29-year-old racked up 210 runs at an average of 110 and strike rate of 114.75.
Batting at No.6, he dug the side out of trouble twice under extremely testing circumstances — 101/4 and 123/4 were his entry points in Sydney and Canberra — and he did so while coupling aggression with previously unseen maturity. His innings construction was elite, and he broke new ground too: having never crossed 90 across his first 38 ODI knocks, he did so twice in three attempts.
In fact, so impressive was the new version Pandya had just unearthed that there were serious calls to include him for the Test series as a specialist batter.
That did not materialise, but there was the feeling that India had struck gold thanks to Pandya showcasing that he’d gone up levels as a batter.
Three years on, has Pandya actually kicked on from the Australia series and elevated his game to a different level?
If we were to talk about Pandya the (overall) cricketer then yes, probably. He is more well-rounded than he ever has been, has evolved into a superb leader and has seamlessly transitioned into a very reliable ‘senior’ figure.
But strictly as a batter? Not really.
Post that breakthrough ODIs against Australia, Pandya has played 20 50-over games for India and, in this period, has averaged 31.18 — that is two fewer than his career average of 33.32. There’s also been a significant drop in his overall strike rate: it’s dipped from 112.03 to 104.83.
Unquestionably, he’s played some really good knocks in this period — the standouts being the 64 in Pune and 71 in Manchester, both against England — but if we were to ask if Pandya has hit the levels he was expected to hit — both in terms of consistency and impact — then the answer would be a no.
What’s been ailing Pandya the batter?
An average of 31 across a three-year period is a middling figure for a batter of Pandya’s caliber, and that largely has been due to his struggles against good length deliveries (6m - 8m) banged into the surface.
Post the Australia series, Pandya has faced a total of 129 balls on a ‘good length’ from the pacers and against these deliveries, he’s averaged an eye-watering 14.6 while being dismissed six times. In other words, 50% of Pandya’s dismissals in ODIs vs pacers since 2021 have come against balls pitched in the 6m-8m mark.
The drop-off in average is significant, considering he averaged 27.1 against the same type of deliveries till the end of 2020, but the issue becomes alarming when you factor in the drop in strike rate.
Across his first 38 ODI innings, Pandya struck at 90 against balls pitched on a 6m-8m mark by the quicks. In 17 innings since the start of 2021, this figure has dropped to 68.
It’s an issue that teams have identified and targeted him with: since 2021, pacers have bowled 38.2% of their deliveries to Pandya on a short-ish good length, outside off. That’s nearly 10% more than any other length he’s faced.
It’s a strategy that has paid off, for quite remarkably, nearly every single one of Pandya’s dismissals against pace in the past three years have been against deliveries either back-of-a-length or short.
One can, of course, make the argument that 17 innings — spread across three years — is too small a sample size to come to conclusions but Pandya has struggled against the same length in the shortest format too.
In the aforementioned period (since 2021), Pandya, against pacers in all T20s, has struck at 109.2 while averaging 21.6, against deliveries pitched on a hard length (6m-8m).
For context, between 2016 and 2020, he struck at 125 against these kinds of deliveries while averaging 28.4.
This weakness was first brought to attention by the England pairing of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, who in the five-match T20I series in 2021, relentlessly targeted the right-hander with back-of-a-length and short deliveries, bowling 34/35 deliveries on a length that was either 6m or shorter. There, Pandya could only manage 32 runs against the pair, at a SR of 91.4. Other teams have since caught on to the trend.
Something else that’s also contributed to the drop in Pandya’s overall strike rate has been him being relatively circumspect against spin.
The 1.0 version of Pandya was a devastating spin basher: in his first 38 ODI knocks, he struck at a mind-boggling 139.4 vs spin, striking a six every 8.6 balls. He, much like Virender Sehwag, barely considered spinners to be ‘bowlers’.
This SR has since (from the start of 2021) dropped to 92.03. Still healthy, but speaking relatively, a very big drop-off.
But unlike on the pace front, the benefit of the doubt ought to be given here to Pandya, who seems to have consciously toned his aggression down against the spinners. Case in point, there’s been a 10% drop in attack percentage while the average has remained high.
He struck at close to 140 against spin in IPL 2023 and showed in the clash against Rajasthan in Jaipur that he still has it in him to be an absolute force of nature: there, he smoked Zampa and Chahal for a combined 33 runs off just 12 balls.
That being said, Pandya does seem to have a bit of trouble against left-arm orthodox.
In ODIs in the last three years, he’s struck at just 69 against SLA and the pattern has also extended in T20s. Since 2021, his SR against SLA in T20s reads just 89.7. In IPL 2023, he struck at over 150 vs offies and leggies but boasted of a SR of just 66.7 vs left-arm spinners, scoring 22 off 33 balls while getting dismissed twice.
Pandya’s issues against SLA were on display in the West Indies tour as well, where across the T20I and ODI legs of the series, he maintained a strike rate of 70 against Gudakesh Motie and Akeal Hosein.
Come the World Cup swing, India will need Pandya to rise above his weaknesses
For Hardik Pandya the batter, the last three years in international cricket have not gone to plan and though he’s transformed himself into a superstar in the IPL, there’s an argument to be made that he’s yet to live up to his hype and potential in Indian colours.
A golden opportunity came and disappeared in the form of the T20 World Cup in Australia last year but luckily for Pandya, he’ll have another opportunity in a month’s time.
But in order to succeed, he’ll need to rise above his weaknesses with the bat.
It won’t be easy, and he’s bound to be tested relentlessly (starting with the Asia Cup), but the upshot for Pandya is a chance to get his name immortalised. India will need Pandya the bowler to chip in occasionally, but if they are to go all the way, they’ll need Pandya the batter to be at his best.
Three years on, he needs to re-summon the spirit that possessed him on the tour of Australia back in 2020.
