IPL 2023: Aakash Chopra All Praise For Gujarat Titans Captain Hardik Pandya

Gujarat Titans wrote their name in the history last year in the IPL. What caught the attention of the cricket fraternity was Hardik Pandya's composed captaincy for the franchise which made its debut last season. The fact that Pandya hadn't led a team before, an IPL title in the first season as permanent is what impressed all the people around. GT surprised everyone with their dominant finishes in the contest and as the season progressed, Gujarat became the first team to qualify for the playoffs. 

"It’s hard to win a match from a defensive position, we’ve seen this in the TATA IPL. The point about captaincy was very salient. The game started with fast bowlers bowling quite often with discipline due to the movement of the ball. Soon after, spinners were introduced at the right time," said Aakash Chopra on Pandya's captaincy.

Currently, Gujarat have picked up right from they left off as they sit second in the points table. Pandya's leadership has got him in an elite list of captains which has the names of MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. (Watch: Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill Cheekily Slap Each Other In Video Shared By MI)

Pandya is now one the most successful captain in the IPL history in terms of win percentage (minimum 20 games). The 29-year-old now has a winning percentage of 75, GT have played 20 under his leadership and won 15 of them.

MS Dhoni is the name who leads the all-time list if we acknowledge the fact that Pandya's winning percentage will take a dip in the future given he has only led the team for 20 games for now. Dhoni has percentage of 58.99 and he is followed by Rohit Sharma, who has a winning percentage of 56.08.

All-round GT beat MI

Hardik Pandya with his captaincy skills has been the backbone of the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League. His unexpected calls and decisions have worked in the favour of GT most of the time. Once again his decisions against Mumbai Indians (MI) allowed GT to register a comfortable victory at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Gujarat on Tuesday. After a slow powerplay, MI started to regain momentum with Cameron Green. But the decision to bring in the deadly spinners helped GT regain control of the match.

"That has been my motto, always taking calls on situations. T20 is very funny, a couple of sixes can change your mind. Captaincy is something I back my instincts on. Me and Ashu Pa (Ashish Nehra) have a similar mindset, we back our calls and we have similar calls. Today, the idea of bowling Rashid and Noor was simple," Hardik Pandya said after the match.

"They like pace with Green and Tim David who are big hitters, and that`s why we wanted to offer them spin and offer them spinners that are difficult to read. Wanted to close the game early because a couple of games haven`t gone in our favour recently. (On Abhinav Manohar) I think it is all hard work, he bats 2 hours in the nets every day it feels like, he`s been our best death overs hitter. We spoke to him last year and there were a few things he had to improve on, and this year he`s come out blazing," he added.