Hardik Pandya needs to be fully fit for World Cup 2027. Image Credits: AFP
If anything, the UK tour was a neat picture of how crucial Hardik Pandya is to India’s white-ball setups. His absence threw the team balance out of sync, forcing India to persist with flawed combinations.
It’s never easy to find alternatives for someone like Hardik. But the gulf in quality between him and the other all-round options remains wide enough to leave the entire combination compromised.
The value of Hardik Pandya in white-ball cricket
Since the 2019 World Cup, only seven players from the top 10 ODI teams have achieved a double of 1000 runs and 40 wickets. Among them, only two are pace-bowling all-rounders - Hardik Pandya and Azmatullah Omarzai.
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That’s the rarity of such players. In this period, Hardik has 1173 runs at an average of 35.54 and a strike rate of 107.61 in 39 innings, including seven fifties.
With the ball, he has 47 wickets at 31.55 runs apiece and an economy rate of 5.68 in 44 outings, with a four-wicket haul. It’s worth noting that India have used him as a floater and asked him to bowl tough overs, both roles he accomplished with tremendous consistency.
Hardik Pandya has been the premium white-ball all-rounder.
Since the 2019 World Cup, India have won 38 of the 49 white-ball matches Hardik Pandya has featured in, losing just 10, with one ending in a no result. Their win-loss ratio with him stands at an impressive 3.8.
In contrast, India have won only 37 of 66 matches without him. They have lost 25, while one game ended in a tie and three produced no result, bringing their win-loss ratio down to 1.48.
His absence alone makes India half the team they are with him. Hardik alone gives them the liberty to play an extra batter or bowler according to the situation.
Hardik’s value in India's bowling setup
Hardik Pandya has a knack for picking wickets. He, as surprising as it might sound, has been one of the most premium bowlers for India, with the team preferring him ahead of specialist bowlers at times.
Most of his wickets have been of the main batters, with junk wickets only coming here and there. Since the 2019 World Cup, 29 of Hardik's wickets (61.70% of his total scalps) have come against batters batting between No.1 and No.5.
He has averaged 35.13 while conceding just 5.79 runs per over against them. India use him to break whenever a partnership is brewing or a big partnership has already threatened.
Take the fixture against Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup, for instance. Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai had formed a big 121-run partnership for the fourth wicket and were looking to take Afghanistan to a big score.
Hardik Pandya takes big wickets
However, Hardik broke the stand in the 35th over by dismissing Omarzai, triggering a collapse, as Afghanistan fell short of a par score in the first innings. Similarly, he removed Liam Livingstone in the series decider in Manchester in 2022 to break a 49-run stand just when England were looking to put their foot on the pedal.
Hardik tends to dismiss set batters. Since the 2019 World Cup, he has removed 13 batters after they had crossed 30, five of whom had already gone past the fifty-run mark.
All this suggests how India turn to him whenever they need a wicket, irrespective of the phase. Few pacers have been as effective as him under pressure.
Hardik Pandya irreplaceable with the bat for India
Hardik Pandya is India’s crisis man with the bat. Be it handling a collapse or giving impetus in the lower order, he’s done it all.
Since the 2019 World Cup in England, Hardik has batted everywhere from No.4 to 7 and performed reasonably well in every position. India have used him according to the situation and requirement.
For instance, he was promoted ahead of MS Dhoni in the World Cup 2019 semifinal to arrest a collapse after India lost four wickets for 24 runs. Hardik formed a useful 47-run stand with Rishabh Pant for the fifth wicket before another 21 with Dhoni for the sixth wicket in the toughest conditions possible.
Similarly, Hardik arrested another collapse in the Asia Cup 2023 encounter against Pakistan when India were reduced to 66/4. He formed a massive 138-run partnership with Ishan Kishan against all the odds to take India to 266.
On the other hand, he’s been equally impressive when being asked to hit from the first ball. Take the Champions Trophy 2025 semifinal in Dubai, for instance.
When Hardik Pandya came to the crease, India still required another 40 runs in 44 deliveries, and the game could have gone the other way. The deck wasn’t too fluent for batting, but he hit three sixes in 20 balls to end Australia’s chances of a comeback.
Even in other games, such as against New Zealand in Indore and West Indies in Tarouba, Hardik’s finishing abilities shone. Overall, Hardik has been involved in 13 fifty-or-more-run stands with 10 different partners in this period, all in different scenarios and positions.
Few examples underline Hardik's value better than the 2023 World Cup. Once his injury ruled him out, India needed a specialist batter in Suryakumar Yadav and a specialist bowler in Mohammed Shami to recreate the balance he offered on his own.
Hardik Pandya’s value for World Cup 2027
Even after all these years, India haven’t found a suitable pace-bowling all-rounder to replace Hardik whenever he’s out. And his recent injury concerns have exposed all the flaws he covered on his own.
Players like Shivam Dube have hardly inspired any confidence with the bat or ball, while the likes of Suryansh Shedge are far from developed. Nitish Kumar Reddy, despite showing recent promise, has his own injury concerns, and he’s nowhere close to Hardik with the ball at least.
The England rubber confirmed that India can’t win ODIs without him. In South Africa, where pace-bowling all-rounders will be more important, the Men in Blue can’t afford to start any game in 2027 World Cup without Hardik Pandya.
India don’t have enough options in both the spin and pace-bowling all-rounders department. They have Dube and Washington Sundar, who don’t offer enough bowling value, and Ravindra Jadeja doesn’t seem to be in the plans anymore.
Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar Reddy is too vulnerable to trust him with consistent returns. That leaves them with just Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel as all-rounders.
If Hardik plays in World Cup 2027, India won’t need to play a specialist batter in the lineup, which they were forced to do in the third ODI. They slotted both Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul while having four specialist seamers in the XI.
If India are to finally get over the line at the ODI World Cup 2027, keeping Hardik Pandya fit could be their biggest priority. He has been the cornerstone of their white-ball setup for years, and the search for a genuine alternative remains as elusive as ever.
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