Bharat Arun believes Hardik Pandya bowling less is a positive sign for India

Hardik Pandya didn’t have an overwhelming outing in India’s opening Test against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham. He scored 53 runs, combining both innings, in the match and couldn’t step up in the hour of need. Moreover, he also didn’t get many opportunities to show his prowess with the leather. In the first innings, he bowled only ten overs for 46 runs and remained wicketless.

In the second innings, the frontline bowlers did most of the work and Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper didn’t hand over the ball to the Gujarat-born all-rounder. Meanwhile, Bharat Arun, India’s bowling coach, mentioned that Pandya not bowling enough is a positive sign for the bowling setup. In the meantime, he also hailed Pandya for his impressive performances thus far.

“The less Hardik bowls, it augurs well for the team because it means other (specialist) bowlers have done very well. I am not taking any credit from Hardik. But he did an exceptionally good job for us in South Africa and I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t come to the party here,” Arun was quoted as saying in the pre-match post conference prior to the Lord’s Test.

Pandya’s career in brief

India lost the opening Test by 31 runs and Pandya was the final Indian wicket to fall during their run chase. Ben Stokes, who won’t play the second Test at Lord’s Cricket Ground, starting tomorrow, picked him up. The swashbuckling cricketer will definitely want to perform better in the upcoming encounter. Pandya forayed into Test cricket in 2017 against Sri Lanka and made a significant impact.

He also blazed away to his maiden Test century at Pallekele. The 24-year-old followed it up with a whirlwind knock of 93 runs against South Africa in Cape Town. However, he hasn’t had much to do with the ball thus far in his career, having picked up only seven wickets in eight matches.

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