India is ticking a lot of boxes in cue ball cricket right now. They have many options when it comes to the starting couple, with Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul. Virat Kohli at No. 3 is arguably the best hitter in the world. The bowling alley, featuring Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Yuzvendra Chahal, provides you with many game-changing options for exercising through the different phases of a match.
The only place India lags behind other teams is in the late innings with the bat. Not long ago it was thought that Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja could hit the numbers 5 to 7, but Pant, who falls by the wayside, has been a problem. That brings attention to Pandya as a hitter.
His ability to hit the long ball has never been in question. From the time of his first appearances with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, he was designated as the next finalist for India, after MS Dhoni. While he has played around a dozen tryouts and scored valuable runs in the format, his hitting style is more suited to shorter formats. He has been exceptionally brutal against spin, and his ability to consistently clear the string without coming out of the fold has made him a worthy player.
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The difference between someone who can hit sixes against spin and someone who is dangerous against spin is that: the ability to hit sixes without taking a step. All spinners have fine-tuned their game to counter the assault in cue ball cricket and have therefore started bowling much flatter and faster. These days, if you’re very confident about getting out to fly (as Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, and Steven Smith do), you won’t be considered a finisher. That is where Pandya was different and still is.
When you play a lot of competitive cricket, teams will find ways to nullify the threat you pose. The first crack in Pandya’s armor was against the short, fast pins. Those are always hard balls to trade, and even harder to score, especially for hitters from the subcontinent, who don’t grow up on a heavy diet of short balls and are therefore not natural hitters and hookers.
There was a season in the IPL where Pandya seemed to have solved that problem as well. He began to dig deep into the crease, as if to tell the player that he was anticipating the short ball and was ready for it. The problem with getting deep into the crease even before the ball is thrown is that it doesn’t leave any more room to move, and that causes the back leg to collapse quite often. However, that did not happen with Pandya, as his weight was always on his front leg, and that allowed him to stay upright. Later that season, he revealed that he had recognized that deficiency in his game and was aware of the bowlers’ plans and had left no stone unturned to develop his game against the gorillas. By the way, that tactic of digging into the crease also helped him respond better to Yorkers’ attempts.
“Pandya is no longer bowling, but the situation, and that’s something we associate with quality hitters.”
Pandya was still an all-rounder, someone who played late in a game and threw a few overs. And that role had become his identity. While there is nothing wrong with assuming that role and playing it perfectly, when an injury prevented him from bowling, the dynamics completely changed. There were even question marks about his place on the team purely as a hitter, although that was what it was like for the Mumbai Indians in a trophy-winning campaign. Still, the balance of Mumbai was such that they could afford Pandya as a pure hitter, but could India afford that luxury? Was he ready to become a pure hitter at the highest level?
You have answered affirmatively to both questions. His hitting software has been updated to earn him a spot as a pure hitter, who is capable of hitting in the top five in both ODI and T20. In Australia, the biggest difference in his hitting has been confidence in his ability, which in turn allowed him to stay calm under pressure. Rather than fabricating shots, Pandya successfully chose to wait for the balls to land in his zone.
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He’s no longer a one-dimensional hitter who only goes after spinners, and that has radically changed his approach. It is a reflection of his growth as a reliable hitter who can adapt to different situations and shape his game accordingly. He’s no longer bowling, but the situation, and that’s something we associate with quality hitters.
Pandya isn’t a 360-degree player, but he does have shots for most balls, and against hitters like that, bowlers tend to be wrong more often than against more limited players. Pandya’s stable base has been his strength all along, and while he has added shots from the outside side, both from the front foot and back (his six points higher than wide, slow or fast rebounders, are outrageous), that innate quality of maintaining good body shape has not been compromised.
He’s no longer just a spiker, and it’s only fair that India starts to put more faith in his hitting skills. The day you start bowling again, you will become India’s most valuable player in cue ball cricket.
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