Indian cricket is currently contending with two distinct versions of Hardik Pandya. His international avatar is closer to his younger self, an unforgiving slugger and finisher in the death overs. Despite the odd blips, Hardik has topped his T20I challenges since last year, even when the IPL circuit hasn’t been exactly kind to him.
The middle-order cavalry around Hardik could be in flux on India’s road to the 2026 T20 World Cup. While none can challenge Hardik’s spot, India will be looking to nail in a few spots besides him, between Nos. 5-8 for fool-proof slog-overs smashing, with spin all-rounder Axar Patel likely cementing another slot.
While one keeps a tab on these other contenders, Hardik’s curious ‘death-overs degeneration’ in the IPL springs a faintly distending concern.
The Mumbai Indians captain fronted pace at the death (17-20) in seven innings this IPL season. While he has smote 11 boundaries, Hardik isn’t as lethal with the blade as he used to be, averaging 15 against the seamers after being dismissed five times in 39 deliveries.
Wearing a slightly recalibrated batting role since his Gujarat Titans stint in 2022, Hardik’s presence has diminished at the death. It takes the output of the four seasons put together for Hardik’s slog-overs numbers to overtake all Indian batters in the league since last year.
While none have nearly embraced the death-overs specialism with consistency since MS Dhoni’s heyday in the league, Shashank Singh is catching up with the best in the phase from 2024 onwards. The Punjab Kings batter arguably holds the best death-over aggregates among all Indian bats in the period. In his IPL second wind, the 33-year-old Shashank has racked up 287 runs at the death, nearly 44 percent of his overall runs in the two seasons.
Only four batters have registered more runs in this phase in this time, with no Indian scoring more runs at a better strike rate than Shashank’s 212.21.