Hardik Pandya and His Waning Hitting Ability – A Cause of Concern for Mumbai Indians and India

March 29 was one of the toughest days for Mumbai Indians fans as they watched their skipper play an inexplicable knock against his former side, Gujarat Titans (GT). There was a time Hardik Pandya was rated as arguably the best finisher in T20 cricket. What we witnessed on Saturday night was a shadow of the batter he once was. 

The Titans served a black soil pitch to counter MI, who love playing on fast-paced pitches. Mumbai were set a target of 197, but the pitch slowed down as the match progressed. There was an uneven bounce, and taking the pace off worked wonders for bowlers. 

Sure, the conditions weren’t ideal, but Hardik’s approach was baffling. His shot selection was poor, his timing was off, and it felt as if he had no confidence in his game. His miserable knock ended on 11 off 17, with just one boundary. Hardik’s failure to deliver when his team needed him badly was the theme of MI’s previous season. Sadly, it has continued in IPL 2025.

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Waning Hitting Ability Turning Out to Be A Problem for Hardik Pandya 

Mumbai Indians were lucky to have two world-class finishers in their line-up back in the day. Hardik and Kieron Pollard’s insane performances in 2019-20 helped MI clinch back-to-back IPL titles. The pair would add 60-70 runs in the last four overs, something that had become the norm only in the last couple of years. 

Between 2019 to 2021, Hardik was brutal with the bat in the IPL as well as in international games. In this period, he had a strike rate of 169 against pace bowling while averaging 28.68. In death overs, his strike rate against pace was 200.31. These were enviable numbers for any batter in that period. 

Fast forward to 2024, Hardik has been a liability with the bat. Since returning to Mumbai Indians, he has faced 103 deliveries against pace and has scored at an awful strike rate of 119.42. 

If we split his numbers lengthwise since IPL 2023, it paints a sorry picture for the once lethal finisher. As you can see below, Hardik has punished anything full and in his arc, striking at 190. But as the pacers start to pull their length back, his average and strike rate plummet. 

look at that average shoot down vs short of a good length and short balls (vs pace in IPL since 2023)

from the 🐐 @hganjoo_153's tool pic.twitter.com/2kVshu3V2Y

— Rohit Sankar (@imRohit_SN) March 29, 2025

Hardik has had a weakness against hard-length bowling since his peak years, but he was able to find a way to score. His inability to tackle anything other than full length in recent years means teams can not rely on him anymore to finish the job. 

You would think the solution to this is simply moving him up the order. But the problem with that is his game against spin has not been elite either. Since 2023, the all-rounder has averaged 45 against spin in overs seven-16 but has struck at a rate of only 123. Numbers like this against pace or spin just aren’t good enough anymore when the game is moving forward rapidly. 

For the Indian cricket team, this might not be a big issue thanks to the emergence of Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Ashutosh Sharma. But for MI, this can become a bigger concern than it already is. 

The franchise had made a massive call to trade Hardik from Gujarat Titans ahead of IPL 2024 and handing over the reins to him. But if his numbers with the bat remain the same, they might have to make another tough decision. 

Stats courtesy: Himanish Ganjoo (hganjoo_153)

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