First Simon Doull raised questions on the fitness of Hardik Pandya. Then the same question was raised by Adam Gilchrist. Sunil Gavaskar described his bowling and captaincy as very mediocre. Irfan Pathan raised questions on his death overs bowling and Kevin Pietersen said that the crowd’s booing was having a negative impact on his game.
The question is why Hardik did not bowl against Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals. Why did he bowl only one over against RCB also? Is he not completely fit or it is possible that he is not bowling as a precaution keeping the T-20 World Cup in mind.
About Hardik, Rohit Sharma once said that he can also make a place in Team India as a bowler. His batting is like a bonus for the team. What is the fate of the same Hardik’s bowling now, which is not hidden from anyone. His balls scoring 43 runs against CSK and 46 runs against SRH make it clear that he is not able to bowl at full rhythm.
After all, who has stopped his rhythm? The fitness behind this is that sometimes Klaasen and Markram hit him for sixes and sometimes Travis Head hits him with fours. For CSK, MS Dhoni hit sixes on three of his four balls and scored two runs on the remaining ball.
However, if we think from Hardik’s point of view, one of his compulsions comes to the fore. Last year, when he was with Gujarat Titans, the three bowlers who took the most wickets in the IPL that year – Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma and Rashid Khan — were in his team, but in Mumbai Indians, they do not have as many bowling options on which they can rely.
Akash Mandwal is far from last year’s form. Romario Shepherd’s bowling is proving ineffective. Piyush Chawla has proved to be very expensive.
He is not even getting full overs from Shreyas Gopal and Mohammad Nabi. His own form has also been badly affected. Jasprit Bumrah is the only bowler in the team who is bowling better than all the fast bowlers in this IPL.
Fitness has been a problem for Hardik since the beginning. He played the 2021 T20 World Cup by bowling very less. Last year also in the ODI World Cup, he had to withdraw during the tournament due to muscle strain.
These days, their alternatives are now being thought of. Shivam Dubey has scored 242 runs in this IPL at an average of 60.50 and his strike rate has been 163.51. During this period, he has proved his usefulness by hitting 15 sixes. From Yuvraj Singh to Stephen Fleming, many players are advocating for his inclusion in Team India in T-20. Obviously he is more fit than Pandya and is also in more rhythm.
Pandya should be selected in the team only when the selectors are sure that he is completely fit.