India all-rounder Hardik Pandya made his comeback to competitive cricket today (February 26) through DY Patil T20 Cup 2024. He led Reliance 1 team against BPCL in the opening game of the tournament. This is the first time that Hardik has returned to playing cricket since getting injured during the ODI World Cup game against Bangladesh last year.
Interestingly, Pandya opened the bowling innings for his side and delivered three overs conceding 22 runs while picking two wickets. Reliance 1 restricted the opposition to 126 runs in their 20 overs but also lost a lot of wickets in the chase. Moreover, Hardik came out to bat at number 10 scoring only three runs off four balls as they chased down the target in only 15 overs. Notably, the likes of Nehal Wadhera, Tilak Varma and Piyush Chawla who are part of the Mumbai Indians line-up also featured for Reliance 1 in this encounter.
As for Hardik Pandya, apart from missing the World Cup matches, he also didn't feature in the T20I series against Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan. But given he is fit, Hardik Pandya is definitely going to be part of the T20 World Cup squad with Rohit Sharma being the captain of the team. Moreover, he will also play the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Mumbai Indians and lead them in the season where he replaced Rohit at the helm.
Another player who has been in the news for quite some time now is Ishan Kishan who came back midway from South Africa tour. He has been away from the sport since then but was spotted training with Pandya brothers in Baroda. He is expected to turn up for Reserve Bank of India team on Tuesday (February 27) marking his comeback to competitive cricket with less than a month to go for IPL.
