Leg and off: Should Hardik Pandya's T20 World Cup spot come under scrutiny?
Hardik Pandya's fairytale return to the Mumbai Indians (at least from his perspective) has gone wrong across so many fronts. His captaincy, his all-round ability, and his temperament have all been criticized left and right over the last few weeks. Although not exactly a confounding crisis, one cannot help but overreact because the 2024 T20 World Cup is only a little over a month away.
Pandya last played for India in the shortest format during the away series against the West Indies. Back then, he was a bonafide member of the playing XI as captain and with doubts over Rohit Sharma's T20I future, he was touted to lead the nation at the T20 World Cup as well.
However, much has transpired since that series loss. Pandya's able captaincy, his versatility, and the impact he brings across both departments made him a shoo-in to the World Cup squad. Now, the fact that India does not have credible pace bowling all-rounders is the only card he has up his sleeve, and it should not come to that.
Hardik Pandya is now hovering in the zone between scrutiny and doubt, but luckily for him, it has not reached contempt, as far as only his playing credentials are concerned. On that note, let us take a look at whether all of the critical assessment surrounding Pandya is justified or not.
Team India's over-reliance on Hardik Pandya for 'balance' and 'batting depth'
Hardik Pandya's biggest trait when he came into the Indian team was the balance he was able to bring into the team with this middle-order batting as well as integrating into the bowling attack as the sixth option, and it has not changed to this day.
India's inability to produce genuine pace bowling all-rounders does fit into this, but that not being relevant now, their hands are arguably tied with a double knot in this particular scenario.
Without Pandya in the playing XI, either one of the batting or bowling departments will appear lopsided irrespective of what alternative combination is tried out. As much as India does not want to appear over-reliant on Pandya, the truth is no other candidate provides that much balance to the team. If Pandya's form apparently supersedes his ability to provide balance, then Team India will have to compromise in some form of the other.
But, the new dynamic T20 game makes things even trickier. If the team do not have faith in Pandya as a bowler who can bowl his full quota, then two alternatives emerge. Either the team must sacrifice a batter for a bowler, leaving Pandya as a reliable sixth option. The other one is dropping Pandya altogether and bringing in a frontline bowler to have a potent five-bowler bowling unit. In that case, the batting depth is affected though.
Given Team India's batting prowess (coupled with the desire for a deep batting lineup), and the fact that they will have to play a wicketkeeper in the middle order, which means they might not have a choice but to employ the five-bowler formula, relying on all-rounders to bowl their full quota of overs.
With Team India's top six more or less locked in (Rohit, Jaiswal, Kohli, Suryakumar, Pant, and Rinku), they have to include at least two all-rounders in the lower middle order for batting depth, and they need their full services with the ball as none of the candidates from the top six can roll their arm.
Coming to the five-bowler formula, Team India have been forced to consider and employ this theory since Pandya's injury. It worked out quite well for the Men in Blue in the 2023 ODI World Cup, where everything the frontline bowlers touched turned to gold. However, the approach comes with a fair warning - it may not always pan out that way.
Furthermore, the same formula has been tested out in the shortest format in recent months. Without Pandya, India have more or less been forced to play with five bowlers, with all-rounders like Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube bowling the odd couple of overs at times.
The reason why the five-bowler formula worked in the 2023 ODI World Cup was that the seam trio of Siraj, Bumrah, and Shami were functioning at the highest of their powers. Such confidence is not seeping through at the moment though given how the leading candidates barring Bumrah have bowled in the IPL so far.
Attempting everything and nothing all at once hampering Hardik Pandya's credibility
During MI's first stint and his overall time with the national squad, his role has been to finish the innings for the side and bowl the odd overs whenever required. His role changed with his switch to the Gujarat Titans (GT). As skipper, he took on more responsibility by batting up the order and taking on the new ball duties as well. Despite the drastic change in roles, the one common thing is clarity.
However, that particular trait has been missing in recent times. Hardik Pandya has looked lost in recent times without a clear particular role, and this often happened when he was leading Team India as well.
Even in the ongoing IPL, he took the new ball straightaway to begin the season off with, then took the backseat to allow Bumrah and company to work their magic. Then surprisingly, he went entirely missing with the ball for a couple of matches and took the new ball yet again in MI's recent loss to RR. He has bowled a full quota of four overs in two matches so far.
When it comes to batting, it is the same distorted role that comes into vision. Given MI's gun batting unit, it was unlikely that Pandya would be able to reprise the same role he had in the GT batting lineup.
7,5,6,4,4,5,5,7 - These are not random numbers that are on the screen because a cat ran over a keyboard and neither is it a one-time password. These, in fact, are Hardik Pandya's batting positions in this edition of the IPL. While slight variations are expected at times as the game situation dictates the batting order, at least some sort of consistency is expected.
With that being said, taking the decision-making duties off Pandya and giving him a clear role in the Indian team might help him return to his best. As far as the scrutiny is concerned, fans and pundits may doubt and chastise the all-rounder as much as they like, but the fact is he will be there in that World Cup playing XI, and rightly so, considering what he brings on the table, on the paper, and on the field.