The flamboyant Indian all-rounder, Hardik Pandya, is set to feature in the D.Y. Patil T20 tournament, which commenced on Monday. Pandya went through rehabilitation of his lower back surgery as he had sustained an injury five months ago. The 26-year-old underwent an operation in London.
Pandya has been missing cricketing action for quite some time now, and he has been recovering at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. Southpaw Shikhar Dhawan and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar are some of the other notable names that would make an appearance in the T20 tournament.
During the press meet at the D.Y. Patil Sports Academy and Mumbai Cricket Association, president, Dr Vijay Patil said, “The Reliance 1 (team) would be represented by players like Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Shikhar Dhawan.”
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Dhawan sustained a shoulder injury during the ODI series against Australia and hasn’t played any competitive game ever since. Bhuvneshwar underwent a hernia operation and is now back to his full fitness.
The likes of Shivam Dubey, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson will also be featuring in the tournament. Mumbai’s Surya Kumar Yadav will get yet another platform to push his case for an India call-up. Rahul Tripathi and U19 World Cup sensation Divyaansh Saxena are part of the BPCL unit.
The D.Y. Patil B team will have pacer Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Varun Aaron, and Manan Vohra among the rest. Sixteen teams will be locking horns with each other in the tournament. The final of the T20 tournament will be played on March 6. The 16th edition of the competition can be worked on as a tune-up for the IPL.
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Furthermore, India will be locking horns with South Africa at home in a 3-match ODI series, and the cricketers would like to make a statement with their respective performance. Some of the big names might be rested for the ODI series, and hence confident youngsters might get a chance to make an international debut.
