Hardik Pandya gave rise to speculations about his return to the Test team by practicing with the red ball.Image Credit source: Instagram/Hardik Pandya
Indian cricket team's star all-rounder Hardik Pandya is on a break from cricket for the last 2 months. Hardik will be seen playing in the T20 series against Bangladesh in a few days, for which he is constantly trying to keep himself fit and has also been practicing. Many such videos of his practice have surfaced, which suddenly gave rise to speculations about his return to Test cricket. Will Hardik really play Test cricket after 6 years? Now former wicketkeeper of Team India Parthiv Patel has revealed on this.
Hardik was practicing with red ball
Hardik Pandya, who played an important role in making Team India the T20 World Champion, took part in the T20 series against Sri Lanka in August and since then his return is awaited. Meanwhile, Hardik is seen continuously practicing in Vadodara. The thing that caught the most attention in the videos and photos of his practice was the use of the red ball. Hardik bowled with the red ball in several practice sessions and also batted with it.
Will there be a return to Test cricket?
After the video and photo of Hardik practicing with the red ball went viral, the question in everyone's mind is whether Hardik is going to return to long format cricket again? Is he going to stake a claim to return to the Test team by playing in Ranji Trophy? Regarding this, former Team India keeper Parthiv Patel, who comes from Gujarat, has told the truth. While talking in a program of Geo Cinema, Parthiv made it clear that Hardik is not returning to first class cricket. Parthiv also told that Hardik practiced with the red ball because the limited overs white ball was not available at that time.
Haven't played long format cricket for 6 years
Parthiv, who has played with Hardik Pandya in Mumbai Indians, also believes that Hardik's body does not seem ready for 4-day or 5-day cricket. Hardik has not played any test match for Team India since 2018. He got injured after the fourth Test on Team India's tour of England that year and since then he has not returned in this format. He also played his last match in first class cricket in December 2018. Pandya has scored 532 runs for India in 11 Test matches at an average of 31, which includes 1 century and 4 half-centuries, while 17 wickets have also come in his account.
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