Mumbai Indians (MI) bowling coach Shane Bond gave the health update of the Mumbai all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s fitness. Bond has said that Pandya has been out of action because the franchise is “balancing” their needs as the T20 World Cup is around the corner.
Shane Bond has shared that Hardik Pandya is training quite well and he might return in action on Sunday when Mumbai will take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dubai as well.
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“Look, Hardik is training well like Rohit. He trained today and is getting closer to playing. We are obviously balancing the needs of our team with the needs of Team India as well. The one thing this franchise does really well is look after its players. We are not only trying to win this competition but also have an eye on the World Cup. We are hoping Hardik will be back for the next match and as I said, he trained today and trained pretty well on all counts.” Shane Bond said.
His comments came after Mumbai’s defeat to the Kolkata Knight Riders. Hardik Pandya’s absence was felt in both games as well. Hardik hasn’t played international cricket since the Sri Lanka series, where he bowled only a few overs. But, he is expected to be picked in the playing XI against Pakistan on October 24 in the upcoming T20 World Cup as well.
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“There’s no hard directive. I think one thing you want to do with the key players in your team is look after them. We are obviously desperate to put him back out on the field and he was desperate to play out tonight as well but you have to balance everything up, you have to consider what the player wants and one thing our franchise does is look after its players. There’s also no point in rushing him back to get injured and miss the rest of the tournament when we may have a chance to win it. I think we’re doing the right thing as I said, hopefully we will get him back shortly and he’ll get us back into the tournament, help us into the playoffs and hopefully win the tournament,” concluded Shane Bond.
