Hardik Pandya denied Tilak his fifty-Aakash Chopra

Hardik Pandya gave replies to his critics who were questioning his captaincy in the T20I series after winning the third T20I against the West Indies, but even after the victory, he is facing a lot of criticism for finishing the match by hitting a six. He won the match for his team, and as a captain, he did well, but his hitting the winning runs made him the antagonist of the game as that denied Tilak Varma his second international fifty. The left-handed batter scored 49 runs in the match and remained 1 run short as Hardik Pandya finished the game with a six when India required only 2 runs to win in 14 balls.

India won the match by 7 wickets, but there were people who were more focused on Tilak’s fifty than India’s victory, and one of them was Akash Chopra, who also criticized Hardik Pandya for his selfish approach during the match that denied the youngster his fifty as it was not necessary to hit a maximum that soon because plenty of balls were left to score the required runs and there was no issue with the Net Run Rate as such.

Hardik comes to bat and tells him that it’s important to remain not out; don’t get carried away. Then Hardik hits aggressively. You don’t need NRR; it would’ve made no difference. He told Tilak to go easy but tried to hit big shots himself. You needed two runs off 13 balls, and he smashed a six. I’m sure they want to build a culture that doesn’t care about individual milestones. But even a not out doesn’t really matter here; even if you were out there, you still had 12 balls there to score 2 runs. Tilak was denied a chance to score fifty. That’s just my opinion, though,”
Aakash Chopra said

India are now 1-2 as the Caribbeans are leading in this series, and to keep the series alive for India, Hardik Pandya and Co. need to win the fourth match, which will be a do-or-die situation for India; otherwise, the last match won’t make any difference if WI manages to clinch victory in the fourth match.