"He didn't even remember that Mukesh Kumar was playing" - Aakash Chopra on Hardik Pandya's captaincy in 3rd India vs West Indies T20I

Aakash Chopra has questioned Hardik Pandya's unique captaincy style in the third T20I between India and the West Indies.

The Windies set the Men in Blue a 160-run target after opting to bat first in Providence, Guyana, on Tuesday, August 8. Suryakumar Yadav (83 off 44) and Tilak Varma (49* off 37) helped the visitors to overhaul the target with seven wickets and 13 deliveries to spare to register their first win in the five-match series.

While reviewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra criticized Hardik Pandya's handling of Mukesh Kumar. He explained:

"He didn't even remember that Mukesh Kumar was playing because he bowled the 18th and 20th over, and that's it. Till the 18th over Mukesh Kumar did absolutely nothing. Hardik Pandya had bowled three overs by then and Mukesh Kumar hadn't bowled even one over."

The former Indian opener questioned whether Rohit Sharma would have used Mukesh and Arshdeep Singh similarly had he been the skipper. He stated:

"If Hardik had not been the captain, assume if Rohit Sharma had been the captain, would Mukesh Kumar have got his first over as the 18th or would he have bowled overs before that? Would Arshdeep Singh have bowled only one over with the new ball and wouldn't have got a second over?"

Chopra pointed out that Pandya's captaincy style is slightly different. He added that "unique" is the word, highlighting that's what the Gujarat Titans skipper keeps saying as well.

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"He said that he will get Axar Patel to bowl all four of his overs before the 10th over" - Aakash Chopra on Hardik Pandya

Axar Patel didn't bowl a single over in the second T20I.

Aakash Chopra reckons Hardik Pandya bowled out Axar Patel early in the West Indies innings because of the criticism he received for not utilizing the left-arm spinner's services in the second T20I. He said:

"You said that people are making a lot of noise on Twitter that what sort of captain he is that he doesn't get his spinners to bowl their entire quota of overs. So he said that he will get Axar Patel to bowl all four of his overs before the 10th over."

The reputed commentator feels Pandya used too many overs of spin in tandem. He elaborated:

"He bowled so much spin that people were saying what is happening. You played three spinners, you want to get them to bowl 12 overs, but will you bowl all of them together? Kuldeep Yadav was given a new role. Yuzvendra Chahal was given the ball at the start and Kuldeep Yadav was bowled later."

Pandya mentioned at the post-match presentation that he wanted to use his spinners as much as possible before Nicholas Pooran arrived at the crease. The Indian skipper used Kuldeep Yadav and himself against the destructive wicketkeeper-batter. The move paid dividends as the left-arm wrist-spinner dismissed the former West Indies skipper.