The India captain, Virat Kohli has all but confirmed that Hardik Pandya won’t be staying in Australia for the upcoming four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Courtesy his emphatic batting display in the ODIs and the T20Is, a few former cricketers asked for Pandya’s inclusion in the Test side. The all-rounder also acknowledged the praise and had said that he won’t mind staying back for the Test series.

Kohli confirmed that they have spoken to Pandya about it and teh latter isn’t fit to bowl. He did bowl four overs in the 2nd ODI but suffered some soreness in his sore back. Pandya played all six white-ball matches as a specialist batsman.

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Talking about Hardik, Virat said, “He’s been outstanding. He couldn’t bowl and we knew he’s not going to bowl. But what we saw of him in the IPL, and the headspace that he’s in, you know – you can just see in his game – that he’s wanting to make the team win. But Test cricket is a very different challenge altogether and we need him to bowl. We’ve spoken to him about it”.

Hr further added, “We need him to bowl. That’s when he becomes that one guy who brings a lot of balance for us. If you’ve seen our cricket overseas as well, in South Africa and England, we were able to compete for longer periods through Test matches because of the fact that he brought a lot of balance in terms of his bowling. We’ve communicated that to him.”

Playing his first international series after 14 months, Pandya added 210 runs in three ODIs. He followed up with 78 runs in three T20Is, striking at 156.00.

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As far as his Test career goes, Pandya has played 11 five-day matches since his debut in 2017. He last played Test cricket against England in 2018. His back issues kept him out of the Test team for a long time and given that he can’t bowl for another few months, Pandya isn’t expected to play Test cricket anytime soon.