While it was not specified what injury Hardik had, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said he was at the CoE for rehab. Nitish Kumar Reddy is already a part of the India squad, and the BCCI has yet to officially announce that Hardik has been ruled out.
Hardik had played only 10 out of Mumbai Indians’ 14 IPL matches this year due to back spasms. He returned for the team’s final game of the season on May 24 after missing a few fixtures.
Hardik, who suffered a left ankle injury during India’s 2023 ODI World Cup campaign, remains a key part of the team’s plans for the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. To keep him fit for the upcoming ODI assignments – three matches each against Afghanistan and England over the next month – the selectors left Hardik out of the T20I squad despite his involvement in two T20 World Cup-winning campaigns.
“He is a part of the one-day squad right now for the Afghanistan series. Like Jasprit Bumrah, if we can get him playing well and keep him fit for one-day cricket – he hasn’t played much ODI cricket for a while – that is the main objective,” chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had said last week.
“We can always bring him back. So there will be a little bit of rest and rotation with regard to T20 cricket in Pandya’s case.”
