Hardik Pandya is a certainty in India's playing XI because of the balance he brings in as a seamer all-rounder but a lot of experts feel that the Baroda player may not be Virat Kohli's choice for the new ball.
Hardik Pandya is a certainty in India's playing XI because of the balance he brings in as a seamer all-rounder but a lot of experts feel that the Baroda player may not be Virat Kohli's choice for the new ball.
The general feeling is the length that he hits is not conducive for English conditions.
Pandya, after his tour to Australia with the India A squad, has increased a few yards but if one looks at his bowling statistics, the only time he completed his quota of 10 overs in an ODI was against England at Kolkata where Eden Gardens offered seam movement.
In the seven ODIs that he has played, Kohli has given Hardik something between 5 to 7 overs.
More importantly, in 17 IPL matches this season for Mumbai Indians, their skipper Rohit Sharma used him in 26 overs, which is not even two overs per game.
Ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy, he was the odd one out during the first warm-up match, against New Zealand, giving away 49 from six overs, bowling mostly short. He was hit for six boundaries and a six -- mostly by Luke Ronchi and Kane Williamson.
Something that would be noted by Kumble and Kohli is that Hardik was finding it difficult to change his length. And that's where experts feel that Kohli needs to take a call on whether to give Hardik the new ball when he has Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav to choose from.
Another certainty, Jasprit Bumrah, normally bowls with the semi-new ball.
India's 1983 World Cup hero Madan Lal feels that Hardik needs to use a "bit of brain".
"His natural length is short and that he has to quickly alter in England. If he bowls the kind of short pitched stuff he bowled today, batsmen will punish him. He has the pace, the built and attitude of a fast bowler. But till now the little I have seen of him, he needs to use a bit of brain and be more consistent," Madan Lal told
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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