Suryakumar Yadav vs Hardik Pandya Stats: Test, ODI, T20I & IPL
By CricketTaken EditorialPublished Cricket in India8 min read
Suryakumar Yadav has scored 3,220 Twenty20 international runs at 36.59 with a strike rate of 162.63 and four hundreds. Hardik Pandya has 2,221 at 27.76 and 145.07 with none, and has also taken 114 wickets in the format. Neither man's record makes sense without the other column: one is the best pure Twenty20 batter India has produced, the other is the reason India can play five bowlers.
Both careers are concentrated in the shortest format to an unusual degree. Suryakumar has played one Test, in which he made eight. Hardik has played ten, none since 2018. Eleven Test caps between two men who have played nearly 250 Twenty20 internationals is a distribution no India cricketer of the previous generation would recognise.
Their Indian Premier League records are the largest body of comparable work: Suryakumar has 4,581 runs at 33.44 from 179 matches, Hardik 2,964 at 27.70 from 162 alongside 82 wickets.
The four formats
| Format | Suryakumar Yadav | Hardik Pandya |
|---|---|---|
| Tests | 1 match, 8 runs | 10 matches, 461 runs at 28.81, 17 wickets |
| ODIs | 37 matches, 773 runs at 25.77, 0 hundreds | 92 matches, 1,897 runs at 33.28, 87 wickets |
| T20Is | 110 matches, 3,220 runs at 36.59, 4 hundreds, SR 162.63 | 136 matches, 2,221 runs at 27.76, 0 hundreds, SR 145.07, 114 wickets |
| IPL | 179 matches, 4,581 runs at 33.44, 2 hundreds, SR 148.54 | 162 matches, 2,964 runs at 27.70, SR 146.37, 82 wickets |
The Test row is the shortest either man will ever have. Suryakumar's single appearance produced eight runs; Hardik's ten matches produced a hundred and a five-wicket haul. Neither is a red-ball cricketer in any meaningful sense.
Twenty20 internationals, where the comparison lives
| Measure | Suryakumar Yadav | Hardik Pandya |
|---|---|---|
| Matches | 110 | 136 |
| Innings | 107 | 107 |
| Runs | 3,220 | 2,221 |
| Average | 36.59 | 27.76 |
| Strike rate | 162.63 | 145.07 |
| Hundreds | 4 | 0 |
| Fifties | 24 | 9 |
| Sixes | 175 | 122 |
| Wickets | 2 | 114 |
Identical numbers of innings, a thousand runs apart, an average nine higher and a strike rate seventeen higher. As a batting comparison this is settled, and settled emphatically.
Suryakumar's four Twenty20 international hundreds put him among the leaders in the format's history and second on India's list. Twenty-four fifties from 107 innings is a conversion rate no other Indian in the format has matched. A strike rate above 162 across more than three thousand runs is the single most unusual number either man holds.
Hardik's answer is the wicket column. One hundred and fourteen wickets at 26.82 with an economy of 8.33, bowling almost entirely in the powerplay and at the death, is a body of work Suryakumar has nothing comparable to — he has bowled six balls in the format and taken two wickets doing it.
What each is actually for
| Suryakumar Yadav | Hardik Pandya | |
|---|---|---|
| Batting position | 3 or 4 | 5, 6 or 7 |
| Typical balls faced per innings | Around 30 | Around 20 |
| Bowling | None | 4 overs, powerplay and death |
| Selection case | Match-winning middle-order batting | Balance: batting depth plus a seam option |
| Captaincy | India in T20Is | India in T20Is, Gujarat Titans |
Suryakumar bats at three or four and is expected to face a third of the innings. His method — the ramp, the pick-up over fine leg, the ability to hit square on both sides off the same length — was built for that position and does not translate to a five-over cameo.
Hardik bats at six or seven and is expected to hit from the first ball. An average of 27.76 in that role is not a weakness; a finisher who averages 28 while striking at 145 is doing the job. Comparing it directly to a No. 3's 36.59 misreads what each is asked to do.
One-day cricket
| Measure | Suryakumar Yadav | Hardik Pandya |
|---|---|---|
| Matches | 37 | 92 |
| Runs | 773 | 1,897 |
| Average | 25.77 | 33.28 |
| Strike rate | 105.03 | 111.07 |
| Fifties | 4 | 11 |
| Wickets | 0 | 87 |
Hardik leads on every line. His 92 caps to Suryakumar's 37 reflect the selectors' view that an all-rounder who bats at six and bowls seven overs is worth more in a fifty-over side than a specialist middle-order batter whose method suits twenty.
Suryakumar's one-day record is the weakest part of his career. An average of 25.77 with no hundred from 35 innings, against a Twenty20 international average of 36.59, is the clearest evidence that his game is format-specific rather than simply aggressive. The extra ten overs change what a middle order is asked to do, and his answer to that has not been as convincing.
The Indian Premier League, season by season
| Season | Suryakumar runs (SR) | Hardik runs (SR) |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | — | 112 (180.6) |
| 2016 | 182 (127.3) | 44 (69.8) |
| 2017 | 105 (119.3) | 250 (156.3) |
| 2018 | 512 (133.3) | 260 (133.3) |
| 2019 | 424 (130.9) | 402 (191.4) |
| 2020 | 480 (145.0) | 281 (179.0) |
| 2021 | 317 (143.4) | 127 (113.4) |
| 2022 | 303 (145.7) | 487 (131.3) |
| 2023 | 605 (181.1) | 346 (136.8) |
| 2024 | 345 (167.5) | 216 (143.0) |
| 2025 | 717 (167.9) | 224 (163.5) |
| 2026 | 270 (147.5) | 206 (138.3) |
Suryakumar's earliest seasons at Kolkata, from 2014 to 2017, produced 105 to 182 runs a year at rates between 119 and 140. From 2018 at Mumbai Indians he has been a different player: nine consecutive seasons of 270 or more, four of them past 480, and strike rates above 165 in three of the last four.
His 717 in 2025 at an average of 65.2 is the best season either has had in the competition. Hardik's best is the 487 he scored while captaining Gujarat Titans in 2022, the season the franchise won the title in its first attempt, though his 402 at a strike rate of 191.4 in 2019 is the more extraordinary rate.
| Career IPL | Suryakumar | Hardik |
|---|---|---|
| Innings | 166 | 153 |
| Runs | 4,581 | 2,964 |
| Average | 33.44 | 27.70 |
| Strike rate | 148.54 | 146.37 |
| Hundreds | 2 | 0 |
| Fifties | 31 | 10 |
| Sixes | 178 | 157 |
| Wickets | 0 | 82 |
Suryakumar has 1,617 more runs at an average nearly six higher, with almost identical strike rates. The six counts are close — 178 to 157 — which is a fair reflection of two batters whose value is in clearing the rope, from different positions.
Hardik's 82 IPL wickets at 33.55 have come at an economy of 9.36, expensive by any standard but earned bowling the hardest overs. The IPL's most runs leaderboard places Suryakumar's total, and the most sixes list both.
Six things the tables leave out
- Suryakumar has bowled six deliveries in Twenty20 international cricket and taken two wickets. It remains the most efficient bowling record either man holds.
- Both have captained India in Twenty20 internationals. Hardik also captained Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in the franchise's first season.
- Hardik has played 238 international matches across all formats to Suryakumar's 148, and 55 of that difference is one-day caps.
- Suryakumar's four T20I hundreds are four more than Hardik has in any format for India. Hardik's one international hundred came in a Test.
- Neither has an established one-day record. Hardik's 92 caps at 33.28 are the better of the two and still not a settled position in the side.
- Suryakumar's IPL average is higher than Hardik's in nine of the twelve seasons both played.
The honest summary
As a batter in Twenty20 cricket, Suryakumar Yadav is comfortably ahead and the gap is not close in any measure — runs, average, strike rate, hundreds, fifties. As a cricketer in a Twenty20 XI, the two are not comparable, because Hardik's four overs are worth a place on their own and Suryakumar's are not.
An India Twenty20 side picks both. What it cannot do is replace one with the other, which is the only version of this comparison that has a wrong answer.
Abhishek Sharma against Suryakumar Yadav covers the batting comparison against the generation below, and Hardik Pandya against Ravindra Jadeja the all-rounder comparison on Hardik's side. The players index has the full set, the profiles for Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya carry the biographies, and the cricket in India hub places both careers.
Sources and method
The four-format career lines for each player come from their pages on this site at the last revision, and the season-by-season IPL splits from the ball-by-ball archive of the competition through the 2026 final.
Suryakumar's Twenty20 international row is a snapshot. The figures given — 110 matches, 3,220 runs at 36.59, strike rate 162.63 — were current when this site's dataset was compiled; published records later in 2026 show him past 113 matches and 3,270 runs at a marginally different average and rate. His four hundreds and his standing second on India's T20I century list are consistent across both vintages.
The observation that Suryakumar averages more than Hardik in the IPL in nine of their twelve shared seasons is computed from the season table above and no other source. The claim that Suryakumar's twenty-four T20I fifties represent a conversion rate no other Indian has matched in the format rests on his own innings count rather than on a full comparison of every India batter, and is stated as a description of his record rather than as a ranked record.
Comparisons of role — batting position, balls faced per innings, why one bowls and the other does not — are descriptive and rest on the pattern of selection across both careers. No adjustment has been made for opposition or venue. Both players were active when this page was written, so every column is a point in time. All figures current as of 28 August 2026.