Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya remains on track to play in the upcoming T20I series against Afghanistan in January, contrary to earlier reports. According to The Times of India, the Baroda-born cricketer has completely recovered from his ankle injury and has been training every day to don the blue jersey again.
On Saturday, several reports made rounds that Pandya could be out of action for the next few months due to the injury and will struggle to make it to IPL 2024. The seam-bowling sustained the ankle injury during the 2023 World Cup game against Bangladesh in Pune and was ruled out of the remaining matches after missing a couple of fixtures.
"He has completely recovered from his ankle injury. He has been training every day. Hardik is fit and fine. In fact, he has been working out daily. All the talk about him going to miss the IPL is just rumour. There are still four months left for IPL 2024, so anything at this moment, is just speculation," a source confirmed to the TOI.
Hardik Pandya was recently appointed as the captain of the Mumbai Indians:
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old was recently appointed as the captain of the Mumbai Indians, who acquired him on an all-cash deal from the Gujarat Titans. The all-rounder had performed commendably as the captain of the Titans, who won the title in their debut campaign in 2022 and reached the final the following year.
With Rohit captaining the Mumbai Indians to 5 titles since taking charge in 2013, the franchise will likely have that expectation from Pandya as well.