The Indian cricket team is currently taking on Australia in the ongoing World Test Championship Final 2023 at The Oval in London. The Indian cricket team is without the services of a seamer all-rounder in Test cricket since Hardik Pandya stopped playing the format because of injuries. Shardul Thakur has tried in his absence but he hasn’t been consistent.
Why Hardik Pandya Refused To Be A Part Of WTC Final 2023?
Meanwhile, during the commentary, former England captain Nasser Hussain raised a question about Hardik’s absence. He asked: “Where is Hardik Pandya?”
Responding to this, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting revealed that Hardik Pandya was asked to make himself available for the one-off Test of the WTC Final, but he refused as it would have been unfair to the players who were a part of the WTC cycle and helped the team reach the finals. Ponting revealed:
“He is not ready to play Test cricket because of his body. However, when he was reminded that it is a matter of one game, his answer was on the expected line. Hardik said it was not fair on players who have been a part of the journey to the final,”
For the unversed, Pandya has played in 11 Tests in his career so far and averages around 31 with both bat and ball. He has scored 1 century and 4 fifties. His best spell with the ball is 6/50.
Talking about the ongoing WTC Final 2023, the Indian side has its backs to the wall as the Australian batters dominated Indian bowlers from the word go.
Australians posted a huge target of 467 runs in the first innings, riding on the stellar partnership of Steve Smith and Travis Head. Later, during India’s innings, the team suffered a horrible top-order collapse but on day 3 Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur tried to bring back the momentum by playing crucial knocks. Team India posted 296 runs on the scoreboard after their first innings.
Australia is currently leading the game by 296 runs with 123/4 on the scoreboard.
