Former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar has said that Hardik Pandya practises bowling more than batting and pays a lot of attention to his fitness, health, and body, providing insight into how the
latter prepares for a game, with the classic India vs Pakistan clash coming up.
India cruised to a commanding nine-wicket victory over the United Arab Emirates in their Asia Cup opener in Dubai on Wednesday.
During a discussion on Sony Sports, Nayar was asked how Pandya prepares ahead of a match in the nets.
“He is actually slightly different. He doesn’t believe too much in skill. He practices a lot, but he practices bowling more than batting. However, he pays a lot of attention to his fitness, health, and body,” Nayar said.
“He (Pandya) has a routine, where he does yoga, concentrates on his nutrition and trains for two to two-and-a-half hours every day,” Nayar added.
The former India allrounder lauded Pandya for his mental toughness and diligent pre-tournament preparation.
“He is extremely diligent there. He always remains right mentally, but he tries to remain physically right. After that, he does whatever pre-tournament preparation he deems right. However, otherwise, he is mentally extremely strong,” Nayar said.
In the same discussion, former India batter Ajay Jadeja was asked about Pandya backing himself and coming to the ground with confidence and an attitude that scares the opposition.
“That’s his strength. He has the skills, batting, bowling and fielding. He is an athlete as well, but he has been seen batting at the end in many important matches against Pakistan,” Jadeja said.
“He (Pandya) doesn’t get rattled, although you might have seen his partners getting rattled at times,” Jadeja added.
The former Indian cricketer picked confidence as Pandya’s strength, highlighting that he retained his belief even during the Mumbai Indians’ horror run in IPL 2024.
“His strength has been his confidence. When things don’t go well, it seems like he is overconfident. There is a very fine line between confidence and overconfidence. If you see the second-last MI season, his belief remained the same, but nothing happened the entire year,” Jadeja said.
