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When will Hardik Pandya resume his bowling? This question has certainly found no correct answer so far. The fact that Hardik has been included in India's T20 World Cup squad makes it more worrisome. However, India's limited-overs vice-captain and Hardik's skipper in Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma, has given an update on by when the star all-rounder could resume bowling.
Notably, back injury and a surgery following that has seen Hardik bowling too less in the recent years. In IPL 2020 and the ongoing edition, he wasn't given the ball even for a single time. However, after Mumbai's final IPL 2021 game on Friday night, Rohit revealed that Hardik is getting better day by day.
“In terms of his bowling, he (Hardik) hasn’t bowled yet. So, the physios, the trainers, the medical team is working on his bowling. As of now, all I know is, he hasn’t bowled a single ball yet. But we wanted to take one game at a time and see where he stands,” Rohit said after Mumbai's 42-run win over SunRisers Hyderabad.
“He didn’t bowl today as well, but he’s getting better day by day. So, in the next week or so, he might be able to bowl – only the doctors or the physios will be able to give an update on that,” he added.
While he didn't bowl a single delivery in the season, the 2021 edition of IPL was neither good for Hardik in terms of batting wherein he scored just 127 runs at an average of 14.11 and a strike rate of 113.39.
Rohit expressed that Hardik himself would not be happy with such a performance with the bat. “As far as Hardik’s batting is concerned, yes he will be a little disappointed. But he’s a quality player, there’s no doubt about that, and he has come back from tough situations before as well. Personally, for him, he will not be happy with his batting,” said Rohit.