"Rohit doesn't get the 6th bowler to bowl" - Aakash Chopra lauds Hardik Pandya's captaincy style

Former Indian batter Aakash Chopra has lauded Hardik Pandya for using his resources effectively as a captain in the recently concluded T20I series against New Zealand.

India registered a 1-0 win in the three-match series against the Kiwis as the rain-truncated final T20I ended in a tie based on the DLS method in Napier on Tuesday, November 22. While India won the second game by 65 runs, the first match was abandoned due to rain.

While reviewing the series in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra picked Hardik's captaincy as one of the positives for India, elaborating:

"I liked Hardik Pandya's captaincy style a lot, like getting Deepak Hooda to bowl. We saw Rohit (Sharma) was not doing that, Rohit was not getting Venkatesh Iyer to bowl as well. Rohit doesn't get the sixth bowler to bowl. He does that in the IPL but not for India, there is something."

Chopra pointed out that Hardik, unlike his former Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma, was keen to utilize Deepak Hooda with the ball. He observed:

"Hardik Pandya is saying he doesn't want to bowl, Deepak Hooda will bowl, or he can send him up the order, he can bowl him at the death and in the powerplay also, or get through some overs by bowling him in the middle."

Hooda returned exceptional figures of 4/10 in the 2.5 overs he bowled in the second T20I against the Kiwis. The off-spinner bowled a solitary over in Tuesday's game, conceding just three runs.

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"The IPL has made him a mature captain" - Aakash Chopra on Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya led the Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 title. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Chopra reckons Hardik's experience of captaining the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2022 helped him in using his bowlers effectively. He explained:

"The IPL has made him a mature captain. It's a fantastic take because he is using the bowlers at the right places. In the last match, it seemed Yuzi (Chahal) was not bowling well, so he gave him three overs only. He ends Bhuvi's overs slightly early."

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the aggressive all-rounder is proving to be a smart skipper. He said:

"He is looking very good in my opinion. He probably brings that belief and calmness into the unit as well. It is interesting because you generally see Hardik as an aggressive player but he is a very smart player. That aggressive player is asking his players to be the best they can be, that's what it seems."

Chopra concluded by stating that although it might be the early days of Hardik's India captaincy, things seem to be moving in the right direction.