Gambhir explains how Hardik Pandya can fit in India's playing XI for T20 World Cup

The T20 World Cup group stage is finally underway with Papua New Guinea taking on Oman in the opener of the ICC's marquee tournament. Before the T20 World Cup main round starts (Super 12), teams will play warm-up fixtures. As per ICC's schedule each team playing two games apiece. Team India will be playing against England and Australia in their warm-up match. India vs England will take place on October 18, while India vs Australia will take place on October 20. India will play their first match against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. 

Now, with few days to go for the India-Pakistan game, former cricketer Gautam Gambhir during an interaction on Star Sports suggested some ground rules to Virat Kohli in order to include all-rounder Hardik Pandya into the playing XI. Hardik Pandya has been selected in India's T20 World Cup squad as an all-rounder, however, the 28-year-old cricketer has not been bowling which has raised concerns of fans and cricket experts. 

"For me, Hardik Pandya gets into India's playing XI only if he does proper bowling in both warmup games, not only in the nets. There is a huge difference between bowling in the nets and against quality batsmen like Babar Azam and that too in the World Cup," said Gambhir. 

"He has to bowl in the practice matches and the nets, and he has to bowl 100 per cent. If you are thinking that you will come and bowl just at 115-120 kph, I will not take that risk," Gambhir added.

It is pertinent to mention here that the BCCI included all-rounder Shardul Thakur into India's T20 World Cup squad on uncertainty looming over Hardik Pandya's fitness and injury. 

Hardik Pandya's injury concern

Hardik has not bowled regularly for India and his IPL side Mumbai Indians since he underwent back surgery in 2019. The Baroda cricketer had suffered a back injury during the 2018 Asia Cup following which he was bowling in patches to keep himself fit for the 2019 World Cup. After the World Cup, Hardik went under the knife in the United Kingdom and started his rehabilitation to gain his strength back. However, before Hardik could recover fully, he sustained another injury on his shoulder in 2020 and was ruled out from bowling in order to gain full recovery. 

After Mumbai Indians' last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2021, Rohit Sharma explained during his post-match press conference why Hardik Pandya has not bowled a single delivery in IPL 2021. "The physios, the trainers, the medical team are working on him [Hardik]. As of now, all I know is he hasn't bowled a single ball yet. We wanted to take one game at a time and see where he stands. You saw he didn't bowl today as well, but he is getting better day by day. In the next week or so, he might be able to bowl. Who knows. I mean only the doctors or the physios will be able to give an update on that," said the hitman.

(Image: AP/PTI)