Team India players who sustained injuries in IPL ahead of Australia tour

Hardik Pandya

Yet another player who has been at a constant receiving end with fitness issues- particularly back-problems. With Hardik, it dates back to the 2018 Asia Cup match against Pakistan, where he had pulled his back during bowling and had to be stretchered off the live match.

Ever since, the mercurial Baroda all-rounder’s utility as a full-time bowling option has been quite compromised. Retrospectively, Hardik could have taken a longer lay-off that year to have the issue comprehensively assessed. But with the 2019 World Cup soon approaching, Hardik didn’t have much choice other than to side line the issue- which, consequently, has had a rather long-term impact.

Right after the World Cup ended, Hardik put his back under the knife- missing out on some key international assignments in the process- to get back to full match fitness. Sadly though, Hardik’s back problem seems to have escalated into a rather chronic issue now, one that he has come to terms with.

So far in this season, he has been playing for MI as a specialist batsman and hasn’t bowled a single delivery. The loss of his all-round abilities might force the BCCI to reconsider Shivam Dube and Vijay Shankar as their all-rounder choices, which could well affect the team balance against the Aussies.

~Written by Soham Bhowal