Flamboyant all-rounder Hardik Pandya is expected to miss the three-match T20I series against Ireland starting August 18. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will keep track of Hardik’s workload and take a decision before announcing the squad as India need him 100 per cent fit for the Asia Cup and the big-ticket ODI World Cup later this year.
Apart from Pandya, the BCCI might also rest Shubman Gill for the Ireland tour as he has been playing across formats for India in the past few months.
With his past injury concerns, it is BCCI’s priority to manage Pandya’s workload as he provides the much-needed balance to India’s ODI team which will be crucial for them to win the upcoming multi-nation tournaments.
“Nothing is finalised yet and it will also depend on how Hardik is feeling after the one-dayers and T20s in the West Indies. There is travelling involved and only a short turnaround of three days before one flies from Florida to Dublin.
“With World Cup being of primary importance, one has to factor in his workload. Let’s not forget he will be Rohit’s deputy in the World Cup,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
Pandya has been leading India’s T20I team since the last year’s T20 World Cup and he will play a crucial role during India’s white-ball leg of the West Indies tour where the team will play eight in 18 days in three Caribbean nations and the United States.
India play three ODIs and five T20Is against the West Indies in Bridgetown (Barbados), Tarouba (Trinidad), Georgetown (Guyana) and Florida (United States) between July 27 to August 13.
In Ireland, India play three T20s in a space of five days (August 18, 20 and 23) and if Pandya flies from USA to Ireland and then to India before jetting off to Colombo for Asia Cup, the workload will be immense.
When the workload is measured, even training sessions are taken into account — the duration of batting or number of overs sent down while bowling.
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