On the back of his IPL 2022 exploits, Hardik Pandya returned to action for India in the home T20I series against South Africa last month and impressed one and all with his batting performance lower down the order.
Hardik then lead Team India to a 2-0 T20I series win on the tour of Ireland and then followed it with a stellar all-round showing against England in a three-match T20I series.
The highlight of Pandya’s performance against England was his bowling. He returned with five wickets in the two T20Is that he played, including the match-winning spell of 4/33 in the first game at Southampton.
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Hardik Pandya’s bowling certainly provides the Indian team much-needed balance. However, it can’t be said whether he can regularly complete his quota of overs in T20Is and bowl 10 overs in the 50-over format.
Speaking on the same, former India pacer Ashish Nehra, who worked closely with Hardik at Gujarat Titans during IPL 2022, said it’s a great sign for Indian cricket that the latter has regained his bowling fitness but even he won’t be able to answer how many overs he can bowl in ODIs.
“Even Hardik won’t be able to answer that since you can plan but things don’t always fall into place. But so far so good," Nehra said during a media interaction.
According to Nehra, Pandya can walk into any team as a specialist batter and his bowling should be considered as a bonus.
“Hardik can be in any white ball team solely as a batter. On top of that, if he bowls it will be a bonus. But you can’t keep him as your fifth bowler in T20 or 50 overs. He can only be your sixth bowler,” he was quoted as saying by Telegraph India.
“But looking at his fitness, you have build it up slowly. He will not be going to the West Indies for ODIs which is good in a way. When you are an out-and-out fast bowler you don’t have a choice. You have to bowl, you have to be fit… But it’s not the case with Hardik. He has been doing well during the last 2-3 months," he added.
Nehra also suggested the Indian team management to look at Hardik as their fifth bowler.
“He can bowl 10 overs also in 50-over cricket. But even if he gives 5-6 overs, it’s a huge bonus. Yesterday (Tuesday, 1st ODI) you had four bowlers besides Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik. You are only going to struggle when you look at Hardik as your fifth bowler,” he remarked.
