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‘He could've shown a little faith in Dhruv Jurel’: Hardik Pandya's misfired plan leaves Ambati Rayudu unimpressed
Ambati Rayudu had no complaints about Hardik Pandya's 114.29 strike rate but said that he should have shown more faith in Dhruv Jurel's batting.
Former India cricketer Ambati Rayudu wasn't impressed with Hardik Pandya for not showing enough confidence in Dhruv Jurel during the third T20I against England. Pandya was India's highest run-getter in the 172-run chase but failed to take India over the line in Rajkot. He scored 40 runs off 35 balls, which included two sixes and a four. The power-hitter looked rusty at the start of the innings and played a few doot balls in the middle overs, which backfired for him. However, he managed to pace his innings in the death overs but was dismissed in the penultimate over.
Hardik came out to bat in a tricky situation when India lost their power-pack top-order early. Meanwhile, the turning point came when Adil Rashid bowled in-form Tilak Varma for 18 runs in the eighth over.
It left Hardik Pandya to hold the innings together, and he tried, scoring 40 off 35 balls.
Rayudu had no complaints about Hardik's 114.29 strike rate but said that he should have shown more faith in Jurel's batting. On that last ball of the 18th over, Jurel hit a shot at square leg, but Hardik denied a single to take strike in the next over. However, the plan misfired as the star all-rounder was dismissed on the first ball of the penultimate over.
"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," he responded.
‘If he had shown a little more confidence in Dhruv Jurel’
India continued losing wickets at regular intervals, with Washington Sundar (6), Axar Patel (15) and Jurel (2) failing to score big.
However, Rayudu suggested that if Hardik shown a more confidence in Jurel's ability, the game could have been a lot closer as India failed to show much fight in the last couple of overs and lost the match by 26 runs.
"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," Rayudu observed.
