The Question Mark Around Hardik!

Is He Fit To Bowl? Is He Out Of Form With The Bat Too? And Have The Team Management & Selectors Sent Mixed Messages Regarding The Allrounder’s Fitness & Role? Former India Selectors Assess The Issue For TOI...

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One doesn’t know if Hardik Pandya has watched the popular Shah Rukh Khan movie of the 1990s, ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na,’ but his career graph, when it comes to bowling and fitness, can certainly be summed up in that one line.

Thanks to a back injury that required a major surgery, Pandya hasn’t bowled during the last two Indian Premier League (IPL) seasons. In between, he enjoyed a great white-ball tour of Australia and bowled well in all the five T20Is against England. He also bowled sporadically during India’s white-ball tour of Sri Lanka.

The Indian team has decided to play him as a specialist batter at No. 7. But in the first game against Pakistan, batting behind Ravindra Jadeja, Pandya struggled to 11 off eight balls and sustained a shoulder injury. Of course, he didn’t bowl either.

In the latest twist to his tale, he seems to have regained fitness and bowled and batted at a practice session in Dubai on Wednesday. The key decision-makers in Indian cricket, however, have left everyone confused about Pandya’s utility to the team: is the 28-year-old a specialist batter lower down the order, a bowler, or a bit of both?

Chief selector Chetan Sharma first picked him as an allrounder, stressing that Pandya would be required to bowl his four overs. Later, when he continued to not bowl in the IPL, he was dubbed as a No. 6 specialist by captain Virat Kohli.

While Pandya was in terrific form in IPL 2020, this season his form plummetted: Pandya was woefully out of touch, managing to score just 127 runs in 12 games@14.11. “The truth is that the selectors wanted to send him back to India after he didn’t bowl in the IPL, but MS Dhoni (appointed Team India mentor) vouched for his finishing skills,” a source told TOI.