"He says he has learned from Mahi how to remain calm" - Aakash Chopra lauds Hardik Pandya's captaincy for Gujarat Titans in IPL 2023

Aakash Chopra believes Hardik Pandya's calmness as a skipper was one of the main reasons for the Gujarat Titans' (GT) impressive run in IPL 2023.

The Titans became the first team to reach back-to-back finals in their first two seasons of the Indian Premier League. They were on the verge of defending their last season's title before Ravindra Jadeja scored 10 runs off the last two deliveries of the final over to deny them an even more significant achievement.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra picked Pandya's captaincy as one of the factors behind the Titans' run to the final, elaborating:

"Hardik Pandya's captaincy, this job couldn't have been done without the captaincy. He brings calmness, he brings confidence, he brings belief. He says he has learned from Mahi how to remain calm."

The former Indian opener pointed out that the Gujarat Titans skipper is an excellent amalgam of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, explaining:

"He is otherwise a flamboyant player. That calmness and flamboyance do not actually go hand-in-hand. If you see Dhoni as calm, he is not flamboyant, he is very understated. If you see Kohli as flamboyant, he is also not calm, he is aggressive. Hardik Pandya is finding that balance, the best of both worlds."

While observing that Pandya was not at the top of his game with both bat and ball, Chopra opined that his leadership skills seem to have cemented his place as India's long-term T20I captain, stating:

"He has not done that well with both bat and ball. A very middling kind of season for him but the team progressed to the final and performed well. It seems he will become India's long-term captain in the shortest format."

Pandya, with 346 runs in 15 innings at a strike rate of 136.75, was the Gujarat Titans' fourth-highest run-getter in IPL 2023. The seam-bowling all-rounder picked up only three wickets in the 11 innings he bowled but impressed as a leader.

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"It shows that Indian coaches are no less than anyone" - Aakash Chopra lauds Ashish Nehra's contribution to Gujarat Titans' success

Ashish Nehra complements Hardik Pandya as the Gujarat Titans' head coach. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra concluded by praising Ashish Nehra for his contributions to the Gujarat Titans' success, observing:

"When the auction happened, I said they had not made a good team. Ashish Nehra has something. He understands the game very well and the players too. He managed the team very well and it shows that Indian coaches are no less than anyone."

The cricketer-turned-commentator pointed out that Nehra was instrumental in acquiring Pandya, Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill ahead of the IPL 2022 auction. He added that the former Indian seamer extracted the best from a seemingly weak batting lineup and turned it into a formidable unit.