Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has claimed that Hardik Pandya is a ‘one-in-a-billion’ player for India. He added that the Indian team, despite their best efforts, haven’t been able to find a player with similar all-round skills as well. However, Hardik scored an unbeaten 39 off 45 balls as India set South Africa a 125-run target in the second T20I in Gqeberha on Sunday, November 10.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “Honestly speaking and there is no recency bias in that, he is one in a billion. I am saying that because you don’t have anyone else like Hardik. You are consistently trying. You are searching for different things. You played Shivam Dube. You got Venkatesh Iyer to bowl. You got Nitish Kumar Reddy to bowl and bat. You played him up the order and now you are drafting Ramandeep Singh into the team, and all of them are getting fast-tracked. You feel you should try everyone because no one has the skillset he has, a fast-bowling all-rounder.”
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While talking about Hardik Pandya’s knock in Sunday’s game, Aakash Chopra acknowledged that the all-rounder started slowly as well. However, he praised him for staying till the end as well.
“When he came to bat, the conditions were slightly difficult, the bounce was slightly up and down, and the pace was also not consistent. It seemed like he was getting slightly stuck against spin but he has got the ability to take the game till the end. However, I have an opinion that he should have taken singles in the end. He played many dot balls. You should have taken singles till Arshdeep was there. After that, it’s okay if you didn’t. Arshdeep even hit a six. That aside, he has got the game. We saw the shots over the keeper against Bangladesh. Here also we saw him playing those kinds of shots. At times, some players play well against spin and others play well against fast bowling, and struggle vice versa, but he plays well against both,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
