Team India’s star all-rounder is all set to captain the Mumbai Indians in the upcoming IPL season. Hardik Pandaya, who has been out of action for quite some time now,.
However, as the IPL is coming close, Hardik Pandaya has started his preparation for the mega showpiece event and was seen practicing in Baroda with Kurnal Pandaya and Ishan Kishan.
In spite of Hardik Pandaya’s absence from international cricket, Hardik Pandaya was awarded a Grade A contract by BCCI.
On the other hand, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were axed from the central contract after both of them decided to skip the Ranji Trophy.
Hardik has been part of Team India in white-ball cricket recently, but the selection committee has decided not to put him in the test squad as his body cannot sustain the workload of test matches.
However, former ex-Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan feels that if Hardik doesn’t want to play Test cricket, he should at least play in domestic white-ball matches when he is not playing international cricket.
Irfan Pathan also said that the criteria for selection should be the same for everyone.
Irfan Pathan wrote on X “They are talented cricketers, both Shreyas and Ishan. I hope they bounce back and come back stronger. If players like Hardik don’t want to play red-ball cricket, should he and others like him participate in white-ball domestic cricket when they aren’t on national duty? If this doesn’t apply to all, then Indian cricket won’t achieve the desired results!”
Hardik Pandaya is set to lead the Mumbai Indians in the upcoming IPL season, starting on March 22 with the Chennai Super Kings taking on the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
