Rayudu admitted that Hardik batted well under testing batting conditions when wickets fell around him.
Former CSK batter Ambati Rayudu defended Hardik Pandya’s strike rate after his underwhelming innings in India’s loss to England in Rajkot.
Pandya was India’s highest scorer in the 172-run chase but couldn’t take the team to victory in Rajkot. He scored 40 off 35 balls, including two sixes and a four. He looked out of touch early in his innings and played several dot balls in the middle overs, which put him under pressure. Although he tried to accelerate towards the end, he was dismissed in the second-last over.
Speaking on Star Sports, Rayudu said that he had no issues with Hardik Pandya’s strike rate of 114.29 but felt he should have trusted Dhruv Jurel more in the final overs. In the 18th over, Jurel played a shot toward square leg, but Hardik refused the single, opting to keep strike for the next over. However, the decision backfired as Pandya got out on the very first ball of the 19th over.
Rayudu admitted that Hardik batted well under testing batting conditions when wickets fell around him. However, he felt that at a time when India needed a finishing touch, Hardik could have shown more confidence in Jurel’s ability to handle the situation.
“It was a good performance because batting wasn’t that easy and wickets were falling from the other end. So he paced his innings well. However, when the finishing touch was required to be given, he could have shown a little faith in Dhruv Jurel,” Rayudu said.
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Rayudu feels that if Hardik had trusted Jurel’s batting ability more, India might have put up a stronger fight in the final overs. Instead, the team struggled to build momentum and fell short by 26 runs.
He pointed out that Hardik is capable of chasing even a big target in the last over, so allowing Jurel to play his part earlier could have kept India in the game. Despite this, Rayudu still praised Hardik for the way he paced his innings under pressure.
“Even if 25 had been required in the last over, Hardik has the ability to hit that. So I feel if he had shown a little more confidence in Dhruv Jurel, the game might have been closer. However, the way he paced his innings was very heartening,” he added.
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