Ravi Shastri is however full of praise for Hardik Pandya who was arguably India’s best batsman against Australia in 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is. Hardik Pandya was arguably one of India’s standout performers in the limited-overs leg against Australia where he scored 210 runs in ODIs and 78 runs in T20Is.
Hardik Pandya who is playing as a specialist batsman mostly to avoid risking and aggravating his lower back pain proved critics wrong after nearly missing out on the spot in India’s squad for the limited-overs leg.
Ravi Shastri: Hardik Pandya’s Game Awareness Second To None And He’s One Of Cleanest Strikers Of The Ball
Ravi Shastri, an Indian coach, is however full of praise for Hardik Pandya who amassed 210 runs in ODI series with 2 scores in the 90s in India’s otherwise poor performance and 2-1 loss. In the subsequent T20Is that followed, he scored 78 runs in three innings at an average of 39 and at a strike-rate of 156.00 which helped India chase down targets when odds were stacked against the team.
India were without the services of batsman Rohit Sharma who was ruled out with an injury in the entire white-ball limited-overs series. At the same time, pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were rested several times to keep them fresh for 4 match test series. Hardik Pandya truly stepped up in their absence and delivered with the bat for India.
“Winning the T20s without Rohit and Bumrah was a huge achievement. What’s essentially working beautifully for this team is players standing up to these responsibilities. In that, Hardik has been a natural. His game awareness is second to none. He’s one of the cleanest strikers of the ball I’ve seen in the game,” Shastri was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
The tour now fast tracks to the 4 match Test series where India will be without the services of Hardik Pandya as he isn’t considered match fit for the longer format of the game as he is not bowling to risk aggravating his back pain.
Since the 27-year-old had issues with his back and isn’t playing as an all-rounder, white-ball cricket is all that the management deems feasible at the moment.
Ravi Shastri: Jasprit Bumrah And Mohammed Shami Rested For Bowling Extensively In Recently Concluded IPL 2020
Ravi Shastri also spoke about the decision to rest pace spearheads Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami in the limited-overs assignments. Jasprit Bumrah didn’t play a T20I while Mohammed Shami went wicketless and played in a solitary T20I. The India head coach highlighted that the two were used extensively by their respective Indian Premier League franchises and had to be given a break before the demanding 5-day cricket begins.
“That was a total of 64 overs”, said Shastri in reference to the extent to which Bumrah was used by Mumbai Indians in IPL 2020. “The maximum any Indian bowled, before we arrived here,” he said.
Jasprit Bumrah bowled 60 overs for winners Mumbai Indians and was 2nd leading wicket-taker with 27 wickets after Kagiso Rabada’s 30 wickets. Mohammed Shami, on the other hand, also bowled 53.4 overs in the tournament for Kings XI Punjab.
While Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are set to be spearheading pace bowling attack in the Indian team for the 4 match Test series against Australia, one of Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini will join them to form the pace trio.