India’s premier fast-bowling allrounder Hardik Pandya – who will be leading new entrants Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022 – is set to undergo a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore ahead of the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League, starting March 26.
Missing from action since the T20 World Cup last November, the 28-year-old will be at the NCA for a couple of days and go through various fitness-related tests. These tests are part of BCCI and NCA’s necessary procedure for players who are making a comeback upon recuperating from an injury.
In Hardik’s case, he hasn’t had a major injury in this phase but has been striving to overcome a longstanding back issue. Ever since the cricketer went through a lower back surgery in October 2019, he hasn’t managed to bowl at full tilt as he did before.
“Hardik will be at the NCA for the next two days and appear in the various fitness tests. He is a centrally contracted cricketer and has not played any cricket since the T20 World Cup in UAE.
He would need to pass the fitness test as it has been mandatory for some time now. Last year, even Shreyas Iyer appeared for a fitness test post shoulder surgery before playing IPL,”
India Today quoted a BCCI source as saying.
While being asked to come up for the NCA tests is a sign that Hardik remains very much part of India’s next T20 World Cup plans, much of his fate would depend largely on how successfully he goes through the same.
The Indian cricket think-tank seems in no mood to repeat last year’s scenario where, even though chief selector Chetan Sharma said Hardik will be ready to bowl four overs at the World Cup in the United Arabic Emirates, at no stage did he look fit enough to bowl even half his quota at full speeds.
Hardik recently bagged a C contract for the year with BCCI but needs to show refined fitness and give strong allround performance in the 2022 campaign to regain his footing in the scheme of things
