Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan backed Team India vice-captain Hardik Pandya to come out well in the T20 World Cup 2024. He pointed few things about the all-rounder’s batting stance and said if he rectifies that he will play a major role for the team in the tournament.
Ever since IPL 2024 started, things haven’t been going in the way of Hardik Pandya. The backlash from the fans after the Mumbai Indians captaincy saga seemed to have bothered him a lot as his performances went quite down in the tournament with both bat and ball.
Hardik Pandya didn’t look like a free man in the IPL 2024 as he looked too tentative and failed miserably with the bat and ball as well as the skipper of the team. There were even rumors that the all-rounder might not make it into the team for the T20 World Cup 2024.
With the T20 World Cup 2024 around the corner, Hardik Pandya’s form will be one of the biggest concerns for Team India. However, with him being the vice-captain of the team and all the pressure of performance on him, the big question remains if he would be able to perform.
Irfan Pathan in a conversation with Times Now talked about Hardik Pandya and claimed that the all-rounder’s hitting ability has gone down. He stated that the vice-captain of India has changed his stance to bat in middle overs which hampered his hitting ability.
Pathan added that if Hardik Pandya has to go back to his hitting best, he needs to bat in his old stance. He added:
"Hardik's hitting ability has gone down, we all know that. Probably he wants to bat up the order. If you look at his stance, he used to have the widest stance. Widest stance as a hitter give you a good base. But in the last 1.5 years his stance has narrowed down.
“When you actually have that stance you have much more free movement and you want when the ball is doing something as far his technique is concerned. I really think if he wants to play that kind of role then he has to go back to his old stance. Which is batting closely to the stumps and it will allow him a great base as far as hitting is concerned.”
He will play a major role in the World Cup - Irfan Pathan on Hardik Pandya
Irfan Pathan pointed out that if Hardik Pandya replicates his bowling form from the last few games in IPL then it will boost his confidence in batting. He added that if the all-rounder gets all the things right he will play a major role for the team. He elaborated:
"Other thing if his bowling is get going just like the last part of the IPL it will help his batting as well. He mainly comes into the team as a batting all-rounder and As an all-rounder if you get one thing right it will help in other ways as well. I am confident that by the time the World Cup comes he will sort out his hitting issues and once he do that he will play a major role in the World Cup.”
In the IPL 2024, Hardik Pandya scored 216 runs at an average of 18.00 and a strike rate of 143.04, with the best score of 46. He also took 11 wickets at a poor average of 35.18 and an economy rate of 10.75.
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