T20 World Cup – Hardik Pandya Fitness? The Indian Premier League season (IPL 2021) is over for Mumbai Indians & their skipper Rohit Sharma. The Indian vice-captain wil get into T20 World Cup zone but without any clarity on fitness of one of the key member of Indian World Cup squad i.e Hardik Pandya. According to Rohit, though MI player is getting better he is still not sure when exactly Pandya can start bowling again?
“Yeah, look in terms of his bowling, Hardik Pandya has not bowled yet. The physios, trainers and medical team are working on his bowling. As of now, all I know is he has not bowled a single ball yet but we wanted to take it one game at a game and see where it stands. He did not bowl against SRH as well but you know, he is getting better day by day. Hardik Pandya might be able to bowl by the next week, who knows? The doctors and physios will be able to give an update on that,” Rohit Sharma said during a virtual post-match press conference.
T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma still unsure about when Hardik Pandya can bowl, says ‘probably in next week or so’
Not only Hardik has been a concern area for Mumbai Indians (IPL 2021) as a bowler but his batting form also deserted him throughout the tournament.
- Hardik Pandya hasn’t bowled a single delivery in IPL 2020 and IPL 2021 and his batting form has been atrocious.
- In 12 matches, Hardik has scored 127 runs at an average of 14.11.
- Furthermore, Hardik’s fitness has raised a big concern. He has missed two matches and MI camp have put him on a recovery program without revealing the nature of the injury.
- After the Sri Lanka series, he walked straight into the NCA in Bengaluru as fears of a recurrence of his back problems have surfaced.
- Selectors aren’t confident of his fitness and do not want a one-dimensional Hardik Pandya who will just bat as his lack of bowling will lead to an imbalance in the team.
Rohit agrees that he has been disappointing this year but the quality player Pandya is Indian vice-captain wants to continue his faith on him.
“As far his batting is concerned, yes he will be disappointed but we know the quality of him. He is a quality player, there is no doubt about that. Personally, he would not be happy with his batting, but the team and I have faith in his abilities. He is getting every time he goes out to the field. Players like him are just one innings away from coming back to their natural way. If I have to put everything together, I am confident about his ability and I am sure he will be a huge asset,” Rohit Sharma added.
IPL 2021: Mumbai Indians eliminated, ‘we failed as a group’ admits Rohit Sharma
MI scored 235 in 20 on the back of blistering performances from Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav and defeated SRH in their last league match – but failed to go through IPL Playoffs.
“We just did not play as a team and collectively as a group, we did not come together and that was the main reason behind us not qualifying for the playoffs. When you want to win games and tournaments, you need to put in a collective performance. We do not tend to rely on one or two individuals at any given stage, we always believe in everyone chipping in. That did not happen this year and it was disappointing,” said Rohit Sharma .
IPL 2021: “It is a different squad here and it will be a different squad at the T20 World Cup. What we do here is different from what we do there. There is a lot of mixed understanding of the two teams, all the six or seven guys we have over here, would have liked to had a good run but it did not happen. You saw a couple of fine performances against SRH from Suryakumar and Ishan. When you talk about the T20 World Cup, there will be a couple of practice games, guys can get back into their rhythm and see what we can do over there,” he added.
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