At India’s evening practice session on Tuesday (June 8), Hardik Pandya was one of the early starters with Bhuvneshwar Kumar in Paras Mhambrey, a tow and bowling coach in attendance. Despite Delhi’s oppressive heat, the meeting went forward. He’d already missed Monday’s workout since the club gave him an extra day off after guiding Gujarat Titans to win in their IPL debut just the previous Sunday.
In the end, Hardik came up last to take a short shot at the net bowlers and other members of the support crew who were there for throwdowns. After thirty-minute bowling practice, he and Mhambrey and Rahul Dravid, his head coach, had a lengthy and intense argument. There wasn’t much that former Indian captain Rahul Dravid could say at the team’s arrival press engagement before practice when asked whether he had observed the difference in Hardik, the leader that his Titan head coach Gary Kirsten and his colleagues had been praising for their success. The Titans’ success has been attributed in part to Hardik, the leader.
Even before Hardik started bowling at full pace, it was clear he would immediately re-enter Indian white-ball considerations; this was always the case. Despite this season’s central contracts, which saw me drop two grades? Only 14 overs of One-Day International (ODI) and two overs of Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket have been bowled since his return to Sri Lanka in July of last year. As a result, he was limited to only four overs in his last two World Cup games, finishing the tournament with a 1-3 record.
A defined position for Rahul Dravid in the team would emerge if Dinesh Karthik can successfully make his India return in the IPL 2022 season, where he played RCB’s finishers to their best abilities.
Kumar Karthik’s 330 runs from only 180 balls, most of which came in the last over of the innings, helped him finish the Indian Premier League with an average of 55 after a dismal 2020 season in the United Arab Emirates when he was also KKR’s captain, in which he scored just 58 runs.
