IPL 2021: ‘I don’t think it’s worrisome, you will very soon see Hardik Pandya bowl,’ says Zaheer Khan

IPL 2021: ‘I don’t think it’s worrisome, you will very soon see Hardik Pandya bowl,’ says Zaheer Khan

Zaheer Khan and Hardik Pandya

Defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) made a disappointing start to their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 campaign. The Rohit Sharma-led franchise faced a nail-biting defeat against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the season opener. Another thing that might have struck the MI fans was Hardik Pandya not bowling during that game.

However, MI’s Director of Cricket Operations Zaheer Khan said that it was just a workload-related thing in the previous match. He mentioned that Hardik bowled nine overs during the last ODI against England, so, the team is currently in consultation with the physios. Zaheer added that there was a little bit of a shoulder concern but Pandya will soon begin bowling in the upcoming matches of the season.

“Hardik as a whole package is of great value. It was a workload-related thing in the previous game [that he didn’t bowl]. He bowled in the India-England series, in the last ODI he bowled about nine overs, and that’s why in consultation with the physios, we had to take that approach,” said Khan as quoted by Cricinfo.

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“There was a little bit of a shoulder concern. I don’t think it’s worrisome, you will very soon see him bowl. For the timelines, you’ll have to ask the physio but in terms of Hardik the bowler coming in this tournament, we are very confident that he will be chipping in,” said Khan.

‘Pollard is our sixth option’: Zaheer

Kieron Pollard

The former India cricketer mentioned that Kieron Pollard would be used as their sixth bowling option whenever the situation arises. However, the West Indian all-rounder didn’t bowl even a single over during the match against RCB as MI utilised their five proper bowlers only.

“Pollard is our sixth bowling option. He’s an experienced campaigner here so he’s definitely going to be our sixth bowling option. And whenever Hardik is available, he’s going to be a bowling option as well. We’re not very concerned about that department. You have to adapt and adjust. This year it’s a different format so we’ll look to have that flexibility around because of not being able to play in the home ground,” concluded Khan.

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