Hardik Pandya was glad to make his return to competitive cricket action after almost four months at the DY Patil T20 tournament, as he picked figures of 2-22 captaining Reliance 1 in the opening game of the competition against Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) in Navi Mumbai on Monday.
The all-rounder took to social media to post: “Glad to be back doing what I love”.
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At the DY Patil Cricket Academy, Pandya, who was recently seen at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, opened the bowling and took the wickets of Eknath Kerkar (caught & bowled) and Rahul Tripathi for a duck. Interestingly, he then came out to bat at No.10 and remained unbeaten on three off four balls as Reliance 1 beat Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited by two wickets in a tense chase of 126.
Pandya was out of competitive cricketing action after sustaining a left ankle injury during India’s league match against Bangladesh in the 2023 Cricket World Cup in Pune on October 19. Shortly after, he was ruled out of the campaign and put on a long recovery plus rehab route to ensure his long-term availability for future events.
In December 2023, he was traded to Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans and became the side’s skipper, replacing five-time championship-winning captain Rohit Sharma in the top job ahead of IPL 2024, starting on March 22.
In the DY Patil T20 Cup, Pandya is leading the Reliance 1 team which also features the likes of Tilak Verma, Nehal Wadhera, Piyush Chawla, Naman Dhir, Akash Madhwal and Vishnu Vinod. The BPCL team includes players like Sandeep Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Anukul Roy, Shreyas Gopal, and Ramandeep Singh.
Ishan Kisha is expected to play in the tournament possibly for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) side, who have their first match of the tournament on Tuesday. Kishan had been in Baroda since January, where he was training alongside Hardik and his elder brother Krunal Pandya. Apart from him, Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik and Shreyas Iyer are expected to feature in the tournament.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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