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Hardik Pandya returned to competitive cricket for the first time in almost four months, playing a DY Patil Cup match in Navi Mumbai. Pandya has been working to regain full fitness after suffering an ankle injury during India’s match against Bangladesh in the 2023 World Cup in October last year.
The injury ruled him out for the rest of the tournament and he then had to miss the following series against Australia at home, South Africa away and then Afghanistan in India. It meant that if not injured, Pandya would have to play the T20 World Cup later this year having not played T20Is for India since the 2023 World Cup. However, he is expected to play the Indian Premier League (IPL). as the newly appointed captain of the five-time champion Mumbai Indians.
How Pandya fared upon his return
Pandya played for Reliance 1 in the DY Patil T20 Cup in Navi Mumbai on Monday. He opened the bowling and scored 2 for 22 in his three overs. He then batted at number 10 and ended a tense chase along with Piyush Chawla. Pandya was unbeaten on 3 off four balls as Reliance 1 beat Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited by two wickets. Among his wickets was Indian T20 international Rahul Tripathi.
For the last month, Pandya has been training in Baroda as he follows a roadmap to fitness drawn up for him by the National Cricket Academy (NCA). The all-rounder also took part in practice matches in the NCA along with Rishabh Pant, who is also returning to fitness after suffering serious injuries in a car accident in December 2022.
Pandya’s return to competitive cricket has been highly anticipated as he led India’s T20 team for most of last year and would have been a contender for captaincy in the upcoming World Cup had it not been for injury. BCCI secretary Jay Shah announced Rohit Sharma as skipper and Pandya as his deputy for the main event.