Hardik Pandya felt really happy to be back playing cricket again after being away for more than 5 months. He got hurt back in October 2023 while playing for India in the World Cup match against Bangladesh led by Najmul Hossain Shanto. When he was bowling, he fell and couldn’t keep bowling. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, so he had to leave the game. It was disappointing for him when he was told he couldn’t play in the rest of the tournament.
But recently, Hardik came back to play in the DY Patil T20 Cup 2024. Just the other day, he played for Reliance 1 against BPCL at the DY Patil Stadium. After the match, he shared on Instagram how happy he was to be playing cricket again. He wrote, “Happy to be back doing what I love.”
How did Hardik Pandya do in his comeback game? Well, he managed to take 2 wickets and gave away 22 runs in 3 overs. In the beginning, he gave away 21 runs in his first 2 overs, but then he got the wickets of Rahul Tripathi and Eknath Kerkar. It took him a bit of time to find his groove, but then he started taking wickets.
Because of his good bowling, Reliance 1 limited the other team to only 126 runs in 18.3 overs. Dev Lakra (3-31) and Piyush Chawla (3-15) also did well for their team. Later on, Nehal Wadhera scored 50 runs, helping Reliance 1 reach the target with 5 overs left. Aakash Mishra from the other team took 5 wickets, but it wasn’t enough.
Looking ahead, Hardik Pandya is expected to play in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL). Recently, he became the captain of the Mumbai Indians (MI) after replacing Rohit Sharma. Back in 2022, when Hardik was the captain, Gujarat Titans won the IPL title. Then in 2023, they finished as the runners-up before Hardik went back to his old team, MI.
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