Hardik vs good lengths: 106 SR, 20 avg
What's the issue? Put simply, he plays too many low-risk shots - cover drives, on drives and flicks.
For example, the average batter on-drives 12% of the time.
Hardik? 22%.
To make matters worse, his scoring shot output is terrible.
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IS HARDIK PANDYA EVEN AN AVERAGE T20 BATTER?
A deep dive into advanced shot-type and ball-tracking data on India's T20I vice-captain, vs pace and spin, ahead of
#KKRvMI
(A THREAD)
Look away if you're a Hardik fan - the numbers don't paint a pretty picture!
#CricketTwitter
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We start off with Hardik's pace game, which is clearly the worse of the two.
Splitting based on length is one of the easiest ways to assess the strengths of a batter, since length is generally the primary indicator of intent and shot-making ability.
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Disturbingly, Hardik's numbers are worse than those of the average batter against ALL lengths.
He's decent against full lengths (2-6m) but sub-par against all others.
He's especially handicapped against good (6-8m) and hard (8-10m) lengths, which are 50% of the balls he faces.
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Hardik barely plays the slog, which is a productive shot (195 SR and 9% attempt rate on average). He attempts it <8% of the time, with terrible results (62.5 SR).
When he straight drives, he is expected to have ~280 SR. He has 166.7 SR.
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The graph below illustrates that. Hardik's SR is lower than that of the average batter while playing 5 of the most important shots against good lengths.
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As mentioned earlier, that's not the only issue. His attempt frequency is much lower, too.
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Hardik vs hard lengths: 116.61 SR, 41 avg
These numbers are marginally better, but the SR is well below that of the average batter (135).
His go-to shots are the cut and pull, as expected. While his output on the cut is excellent, the same can't be said about the pull.
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Apart from the cut and the pull, Hardik plays a ton of low-percentage shots. He plays cover drives 9.2% of the time against hard lengths, at just 63 SR.
The average batter does this only 5.5% of the time, with much better results (157 SR).
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It isn't all bad, though. He does have high attacking output on most of his primary scoring shots against hard lengths.
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But his attempt rate is disappointing once again. Also, it's what he does outside his primary scoring shots that destroy his overall SR.
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The scoring areas graph reflects that: barely anything behind backward square - lack of reliance on important shots like the hook, the glance and the pick-up.
Ask Suryakumar how he plays it, Hardik! (if they're still on talking terms)
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Hardik vs SPIN:
There's more optimism here. The numbers (and eye test) suggest that he has the ability to be a truly elite spin hitter, but for that, he needs to take more risks.
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Hardik has very high attacking output on several key shots - slog, straight drive, slog sweep, pull, etc.
The below graph indicates that:
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Like I mentioned in my Kohli thread (pinned to bio), the average batter attempts the 7 primary scoring shots against spin ~24% of the time.
Like Kohli, Hardik attempts them <14% of the time. He doesn't employ sweeps either, and resorts to low-risk options too often.
See below:
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Needless to say, Hardik too doesn't access areas behind square.
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Hardik's overall matchup analysis reveals that he is shackled by left-arm spinners and decent against other styles of spin:
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On the whole, Hardik's issues are tough to solve.
He has a clear lack of versatility and length conversion ability against both styles of bowling, particularly pace.
And the intent won't change overnight, even though it seems simple enough to fix on paper.
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The overall value he adds makes him indispensable to India's T20 XI despite these weaknesses, so he will be one of their key players at the T20 World Cup.
While he doesn't exactly inspire much confidence, there's definite hope that he can turn it around.
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END OF THREAD --------- As always, feedback, discussions and RTs appreciated!
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