The fitness issue of Hardik Pandya has since his back surgery ,been a major cause of discussion in the last couple of years and it has now turned into a hot debate as India is approaching the T20I world Cup.
When the selectors announced the World cup squad , Chetan Sharma had mentioned that Hardik Pandya will be bowling 4 overs for India . However , as the IPL is on , now it appears that it the full fitness status of Hardik was probably not shared with the selectors.
Hardik did not play in the first two games of Mumbai Indians after IPL 2021 resumed . Finally he was fielded in the all important game against RCB but did not bowl a single over in the RCB innings and got out cheaply without making any impact as a batter and MI lost miserably .
Shane Bond , the MI bowling coach said that Hardik needed some time to get back to full fitness and so he didnt play in 1st 2 games. He also said the the franchisee is trying to do workload management of the team India players with an eye to the T20I World cup .
However with Hardik not bowling at all in the RCB match has triggered a thought amongst the Indian selectors whether they will reconsider Hardik’s spot in the original squad and there is a big possibility that since he is not bowling and also not having impact with the bat , he might be replaced with Shreyas Iyer or even one of the bowling allrounders between Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur .
There are even talks in cricket circles of getting Harshal Patel in the Indian squad looking at his brilliant IPL form this season.
The deadline for making changes to the world cup squad is October 10. Hence there is still a fortnight left for the Indian selectors to decide on the fate of Hardik Pandya .
Thus the last four 4 league matches of Mumbai Indians as well as the playoffs ( if they qualify) will be very crucial for Hardik Pandya to make a serious impact with both bat and ball .