Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar is uncertain about Hardik Pandya playing in the upcoming ODI series against England as a proper all-rounder who would be expected to bowl 10 overs.
Pandya has had a history of back injury issues that kept him from bowling even a few overs until last year. He made a stunning comeback in the IPL, where he led the Gujarat Titans from the front, contributing significantly with both and bat and ball. This led to him being named India’s captain on the recent Ireland tour.
Hardik Pandya has made a powerful comeback
In the last three T20I series – vs South Africa, Ireland and England where he played 9 matches – Pandya bowled only 16 overs in total, and picked up 6 wickets, including a four-wicket haul vs England in Southampton but was on the expensive leaking at above 10 runs an over.
Clearly, as Manjrekar would feel, Pandya is not ready to do the bowling workload in ODI cricket. The 3-ODI series against England, where Pandya will be making his ODI comeback after 12 months, starts on Tuesday at the Kennington Oval.
Sanjay Manjrekar opined that bowling overs and also batting in ODI cricket for an all-rounder is much a tougher role than in T20 cricket.
“There I am worried. I am not sure it’s a great call but I don’t think he is making the trip to West Indies, if I remember, for the one-dayers. 50-overs cricket for an all-rounder is tough, it really takes a lot out of you,” he said while speaking to Sports18.
“You are bowling 10 overs in just about three-and-a-half hours which is a lot, plus if you are batting towards the end and stay not out while batting first and then come in and bowl those 10 overs, it is physically very draining,” he added.
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami have all been rested for the ODI series in West Indies later this month.
India’s squad for ODIs vs England: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, J Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Shami, Mohd Siraj, Arshdeep Singh
