'Honestly, no one is talking about this': Ex-player highlights big worry about India star

The Asia Cup 2023 will be a pivotal stop in India's journey to the ICC ODI World Cup 2023. On September 2, 2023, India will begin their campaign against Pakistan. To recover from their T20I series loss to the West Indies, the team will need to be aware of their plans and how they want to build their squad keeping the 50-over World Cup in mind. 

3 things you need to know 

• India lost the T20I series to West Indies by 3-2
• Hardik Pandya was the captain of the T20I series against West Indies 
• Hardik Pandya displayed poor performance and failed to lead the team in the T20I series

Also Read: No place for Rahul or Samson: Experts including Ravi Shastri pick India's Asia Cup squad

Aakash Chopra makes a huge statement about Hardik Pandya

Aakash Chopra believes that for India to have a successful campaign in the forthcoming ICC ODI World Cup 2023, Hardik Pandya needs to dramatically improve his recent performances with the bat and the ball. India will host the 50-over competition from October 5 to November 19, 2023. As India's premier batting all-rounder, Hardik's contributions to the team's success at the international competition would be crucial.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, the former Indian cricketer expressed his views on how Hardik Pandya should deliver for the team in the 50-over matches, which could help Team India have a successful tournament.

While speaking on Hardik Pandya's recent performances, Aakash Chopra said:

Bowling and batting, that package, I think you want Hardik to do a lot better. Honestly, no one is talking about this until now. When we lost an ODI as well, the talk was about the youngsters not doing well but the focus should be on Hardik Pandya because he is an extremely important player.

The former Indian batsman also highlighted the fact that Hardik Pandya has failed to perform consistently for the team. Talking on this topic he added: 

If we talk about his batting performances in the last 10 ODIs, he scored an unbeaten 70 off 52 recently in the West Indies, where the start was extremely slow, but he accelerated towards the end. If we leave aside a 12-ball 14 as it was a very small knock, there are only two innings where he has scored more runs than the balls he has faced.

Also Read: 'It is easy to criticise...': Ashwin fires off on online backlash after IND's series loss

Chopra believes that a better strike rate could help Hardik Pandya 

"It doesn't speak highly of him finishing the game extremely fast. We have to keep the strike rate in mind because his primary role is as a finisher. He is not going to play at No. 4. There you need a strike rate close to 150 and we are talking of it being less than 100. So it's not actually matching."

Hardik Pandya has scored a total of 280 runs in 10 ODI innings this year, with an average of 31.11 and a strike rate of 97.7. Notable is that he maintained a strike rate of over 100 in each of the previous four years, with his highest being 133.70 in 2021.