The flamboyant all-rounder, Hardik Pandya, who was ruled out of the T20I and the ongoing ODI series against Australia due to “lower back stiffness”, resumed training Tuesday at the pre-season camp of three-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Mumbai Indians (MI).
Hardik was ruled out of the limited overs series against Australia as the team management didn’t want a to aggravate his injury and subsequently replaced by Ravindra Jadeja in the 50-over squad. However, as per the recent reports of PTI, he with his T20 specialist elder brother Krunal Pandya joined the MI camp at the Reliance Corporate Park cricket ground in Ghansoli.
A senior franchise official informed that Hardik did “strength endurance training” on Tuesday but refused to divulge any further information.
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Hardik, who has played 11 Tests, 45 ODIs and 38 T20s, had returned to action during the limited-overs series in New Zealand after being handed a provisional suspension for misogynistic comments a TV chat show. He would have played a few matches of the Mushtaq Ali T20 had Baroda qualified for the Super League.
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Apart from Pandya brothers, the others who joined the camp are offspinner Jayant Yadav, legspinner Rahul Chahar, pacer Barinder Sran, Rasikh Salam, Mitchell McClenaghan and wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan.
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It has also been reported that the squad will continue its training program at the New Mumbai facility over the weekend and are tentatively scheduled to move to Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai from March 17.
Recently, Pandya has got his name inked on his forearm in all Indian languages. The sequence is what we see on the Indian currency. With these two additions, Hardik now has a total of six tattoos, that we have seen so far.
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Led by Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians will play their tournament opener against Delhi Capitals on March 24 at the Wankhede stadium.