Hardik Pandya, India's all-rounder, returned to competitive cricket today (February 26) with the DY Patil T20 Cup 2024. He led Reliance 1 against BPCL in the tournament's opening game. This is Hardik's first return to cricket since being hurt during an ODI World Cup match against Bangladesh last year.

Hardik is BACK!

Interestingly, Pandya opened his team's bowling innings with three overs, allowing 22 runs and picking up two wickets. Reliance 1 limited the opponent to 126 runs in 20 overs, although they lost a lot of wickets throughout the chase. Furthermore, Hardik stepped out to bat at number 10 and scored only three runs off four deliveries as they chased down the mark in just 15 overs.

As for Hardik Pandya, apart from missing the World Cup matches, he also didn't feature in the T20I series against Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan. But given he is fit, Hardik Pandya is definitely going to be part of the T20 World Cup squad with Rohit Sharma being the captain of the team. Moreover, he will also play the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Mumbai Indians and lead them in the season where he replaced Rohit at the helm.

Another player who has been in the news for quite some time now is Ishan Kishan who came back midway from South Africa tour. He has been away from the sport since then but was spotted training with Pandya brothers in Baroda. He is expected to turn up for Reserve Bank of India team on Tuesday (February 27) marking his comeback to competitive cricket with less than a month to go for IPL.

(With inputs from PTI)