Hardik Pandya captaincy record: What do the numbers say?

India’s Hardik Pandya has been a successful captain in white-ball cricket in the limited opportunities that have been presented to him. 

With Rohit Sharma being in the twilight of his international career, India has been grooming quite a few candidates to be the Indian cricket team’s next captain.

As a result, Hardik Pandya has already been named vice-captain of India’s white-ball squads.

Apart from his leadership credentials, Pandya is also a valuable asset to any cricket team with his hard-hitting batting and his right-arm pace bowling. He is a match-winner on his day in limited-overs cricket.

Meanwhile, the star Indian all-rounder has also captained Team Gujarat and Team Mumbai in the Indian T20 League. 

With that in mind, let’s have a look at Hardik Pandya captaincy record.

Hardik Pandya captaincy record

Hardik Pandya made his captaincy debut against Ireland during a two-match T20 international series in Ireland in June 2022.

Under his leadership, the Indian cricket team won the first T20I by seven wickets before registering a nail-biting four-run victory in the second game to clinch the series 2-0.

Since then, Pandya has led India in 16 T20Is and three ODI matches so far. He is yet to captain India in Test cricket.

Under Pandya’s captaincy, the Indian cricket team has won 10 of the 16 T20Is while suffering five losses and the other game ended in a tie.

In ODI cricket, the Men in Blue have won two of the three matches under Pandya. 

Hardik Pandya captaincy record in international cricket

The Gujarat-born cricketer is only the fourth Indian captain to have led the Men in Blue in at least 15 T20Is. 

MS Dhoni (72 matches), Rohit Sharma (54 matches) and Virat Kohli (50 matches) are the other captains to have led India in more matches in cricket’s shortest format. Among these four, Pandya has the second-best win percentage of 62.5% in T20I cricket.

Hardik Pandya captaincy record in Indian T20 League

Hardik Pandya was appointed the captain of Team Gujarat after he was roped in by the franchise at the Indian T20 League 2022 mega auction. 

The decision turned out to be an instant hit as Pandya led Gujarat to their maiden Indian T20 League title in 2022. The star all-rounder also became the first captain after legendary Shane Warne to lead a franchise to the title in its first year in the Indian T20 League.

In 2023, Pandya continued to impress as a leader as he guided Team Gujarat to back-to-back Indian T20 League finals. However, Gujarat fell short in the 2023 final as they lost to MS Dhoni-led Team Chennai by five wickets (DLS method).

In the two seasons as Team Gujarat captain, Pandya established himself as a successful captain. Gujarat won 22 of the 31 matches while suffering nine losses under Pandya. He registered an impressive win percentage of 70.97%.

Pandya later returned to Team Mumbai after two seasons ahead of Indian T20 League 2024. He replaced Rohit Sharma as Mumbai’s new captain.

The controversial decision received widespread disappointment from fans as Pandya was booed heavily at various stadiums.

Furthermore, Team Mumbai started their Indian T20 League 2024 campaign on a disappointing note as they lost their first three matches. They later bounced back with consecutive wins.

Under Pandya, Mumbai have currently won just three of their eight matches in the 2024 edition of the Indian T20 League.

Overall, Pandya has led in 55 T20 matches so far. He has registered 35 wins and suffered 19 losses as captain with an impressive win percentage of 63.60%.

Hence, Pandya can be considered as one of the prime candidates to replace Rohit Sharma as India’s limited-overs captain in the near future. 

Photo credit: Alamy