India’s vice-captain Hardik Pandya will be linking up with the Rohit Sharma-led side in New York on Sunday afternoon ahead of the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup.
Pandya was a notable omission in visuals of first batch of Indian team players and support staff departing for New York from Mumbai on Saturday night.
A report in Cricbuzz on Sunday said, Pandya had been vacationing overseas at an undisclosed location after Mumbai Indians’ campaign ended in IPL 2024 with a defeat to Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium, and is now on his way to New York to link up with the Indian team for the showpiece event starting from 1 June.
Pandya had a torrid time in IPL 2024, where he was constantly under the spotlight for his disappointing all-round performances post an ankle injury layoff and was even booed by the crowd in both home and away games.
With the bat, Hardik amassed just 216 runs in 14 matches of IPL 2024 at an average of 18 and a strike-rate of 143.05. With the ball, he picked 11 wickets at an economy-rate of 10.75 and average of 35.18.
A lot was expected from him as a leader, especially after he captained Gujarat Titans to IPL 2022 title and IPL 2023 runners-up finish. But Mumbai Indians finished at the bottom of the points table.
The report added that Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Avesh Khan, who played for Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2 of IPL 2024 in Chennai on 24 May, will join the team later, so as traveling reserve Rinku Singh, who will be playing in the IPL title clash on Sunday night.
It also said Virat Kohli sought permission to join the squad late.
Apart from Rohit, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and traveling substitutes Shubman Gill and Khaleel Ahmed, left for New York from Mumbai on Saturday night.
India are set to play their lone warm-up game against Bangladesh at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on 1 June.
Their Men’s T20 World Cup campaign begins on 5 June against Group A opponents Ireland in New York, followed by a highly-anticipated clash against Pakistan on 9 June. India will then face co-hosts USA on 12 June in New York, before going to Florida to take on Canada on 15 June to wrap up their Group A league matches.
India were the inaugural winners of the Men’s T20 World Cup in 2007 and are aiming to claim the silverware for just the second time through the upcoming tournament.
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