Reason for Hardik Pandya’s absence from the playing XI in the T20I

The Indian team is playing Sri Lanka in the one-off Twenty20 International at Colombo. This is last game of a highly successful tour for the Men in Blue and they’d want to conclude things on a high. But Virat Kohli couldn’t field the XI he would’ve initially had on his mind as Hardik Pandya was nowhere to be found when the Indian captain named the playing XI after winning the toss.

While the rest of the team did the warm-ups and running routine Hardik was with the team physio Patrick Farhat. That was an indication that he might not feature in the game. As it turns out the all-rounder was gingerly ahead of the start of the contest and certainly not cent percent fit. Since the team doesn’t want to take any chances given they have an extended limited-overs season awaiting them at home.

Virat at toss

After winning the toss Virat said, “We are going to bowl first. Rain’s coming in and it will be an advantage if we get a shortened chase. We played good cricket. We wanted to create good habits and continue with the same. From the last game, Rahane and Shardul Thakur miss out. KL Rahul and Axar come in.”

Though Virat didn’t give out any details or reason for Pandya’s absence it can be related to the scare he had in the 2nd ODI. In the middle of his 6th over, the seamer pulled out of the run up as he felt a strain in his calf. He bowled only 5.2 overs in that game and Kedar Jadhav had to fill not just that over but the rest of the spell as well.

Considering the options at hand the Indian team decided to field three spinners today as Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav featured in the XI.

India Playing XI for the T20I: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (C), Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav