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Hardik Pandya’s fitness has given the Indian cricket team a huge headache ahead of their T20 World Cup opening encounter against Pakistan. The team management has a big question in front of them whether they want to persist with the Baroda all-rounder without his bowling or they look at other bowling options and look like they have made up their mind.
© Reuters
The leadership group is not in favour of dropping Hardik from the Playing XI and Rohit Sharma, who walked out for the toss during the second warm-up game, confirmed the same. When asked about what will be their main area of focus in this match, Rohit, the stand-in skipper, said that they would be looking to find out who from the specialist batters could be their sixth bowling option if need be.

Toss Update

Australia have elected to bat against #TeamIndia. #INDvAUS #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/iJ3rvtHRoD
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 20, 2021
“We want to make sure that we get the 6th bowling option, some options in the batting order as well, we'll try all those things today,” Rohit said at the toss.
The 34-year-old opener, who missed the first warm-up game against England, also stated how Hardik was progressing as far as his bowling was concerned.
“Hardik is coming along pretty well, but it'll be a while before he will start to bowl. He hasn't started bowling, but he should be ready by the start of the tournament. We have quality in the main bowlers, but you need an option for a 6th bowler," he said.
Rohit Sharma said "Myself, Kohli, Surya will try to chip in as the 6th bowling option if needed (big laugh) but we have the 5 quality bowlers as well but let's see".
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 20, 2021
But the problem is India’s top-order batters don’t bowl that often and when asked about the same, Rohit said that the role of sixth bowling option would lie on three shoulders: himself, Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav.
While nothing’s confirmed but looking at Team India’s approach, it’s almost certain that they want to play Hardik even if he doesn’t bowl.
© Instagram Hardik Pandya
The fans were pissed with the fact that his fitness led to a stage where three of their top-order batters were forced to do the job that they weren’t comfortable doing. What annoyed the most was the team management’s persistence on playing Hardik even if that meant disturbing the whole balance of the side.

Hardik bc kya kar diye ho
— R A T N I S H (@LoyalSachinFan) October 20, 2021Hardik is overhyped Allrounder currently

Oops! I said Allrounder
He doesn't bowl
— Tanmoy Chakraborty (@Tanmoycv01) October 20, 2021So Hardik Pandya will play irrespective of whether he will bowl or not,
To cover 6th bowling, India's best t20i Allrounder need to bowl some overs pic.twitter.com/V7RaS3IXRI
— Guru (@okguru123) October 20, 2021Hardikkkkkk yaaaar, kya hogaya tujhe
— Iamsanskruti45 (@iamsanskruti) October 20, 2021Kya he din aa gaye
— Navaneet (@NavaneetBora) October 20, 2021Yahi dekhna baaki reh gaya tha :|
— Vaibhav Mishra (@Vaibhav69136073) October 20, 2021So Hardik will play all games as a pure batter.. That's what he is saying ..
— Sai Swaroop (@saiswaroop_45) October 20, 2021

Many were worried that if they indeed decided to go in with the same game plan when the Super 12 stage began, then it could even backfire, with teams looking to target the non-regular bowlers.
© Twitter BCCI
A safer option would be replacing Hardik with Shardul Thakur who is definitely a much better bowler than him and can also use the long handle if need be, albeit not as efficiently.

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‘Iska Alag Hi Chal Raha Hai’ Michael Vaughan Takes Full U-Turn As India Dominates Australia

By ADMIN, October 21, 2021

Three days… it took Michael Vaughan just three days to take a complete u-turn on his criticism against the Indian cricket team after the Men in Blue obliterated Aaron Finch’s Australian side in the warm-up match ahead of their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign.
Earlier this week, the former England skipper had expressed his surprise about how the Indian cricket team was being considered a favourite to win the tournament. Vaughan said that the Virat Kohli-led side had struggled to make a name for themselves in the shortest format of the game and that they would face threat at the hands of Pakistan and the West Indies.
"I don't know how India get the 'Favourites' tag in T20 Cricket." - Michael Vaughan (To BBC Test match special)
— CricketMAN2 (@man4_cricket) October 20, 2021
“England for me are the favourites. I don’t know how India get the 'favourites' tag in T20 cricket. I just think they’ve been a long way off in the last few tournaments,” Vaughan said in the BBC Test Match Special podcast.
“West Indies and Pakistan will be threats. I wouldn’t write off Pakistan either. New Zealand have high-class players and you know they will come up with strategies to win games,” said the former cricketer.
View this post on Instagram
However, after watching Team India win the first warm-up match against England by 7 wickets, and the second warm-up match against Australia by 8 wickets, the critic has taken his words back. In fact, Vaughan now feels that India may be the favourites to win it all by the time the World Cup approaches its end.
The way India are playing the warm up games suggests they may be now Hot favourites to Win the #T20WorldCup !!!
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) October 20, 2021
Confused and annoyed by the sudden and drastic change in Vaughan’s approach towards the Men in Blue, the fans of the Indian cricket team started wondering what was going on in the Englishman’s head:
Iska alag hi hai, ek din bolta hai warm-up games are irrelevant & agle din India are favourites now. pic.twitter.com/LgnwG92Tqs
— Rahul Sharma (@CricFnatic) October 20, 2021We all know this is an attempt to jinx India
— TheSportsRaven (@redraven_tweets) October 20, 2021Warm up games are irrelevant bro pic.twitter.com/Guh6us5JtS
— Priscilla (@CricCrazyPrisci) October 20, 2021Now your tweet will be meaningless pic.twitter.com/vzsJ1RY4Av
— Nadim Ahmed khan (@NadimAhmedkhan9) October 20, 2021Should've tried to jinx your cricket career, you may actually have been a great player
— Dev. (@Mohali_Monster) October 20, 2021The warm-up match against Australia was nothing short of a bag of very mixed emotions as the fans who to see some rather unique occurrences during it. While Rohit Sharma captained the side and decided to retire himself after scoring 60 runs off 41 deliveries, Virat Kohli took over the duties as a bowler and ended up delivering two highly efficient overs giving away just 12 runs in total.
Virat Kohli bowling to Steve Smith is once in a lifetime moment btw for cricket fans.

pic.twitter.com/khvB3hDoqM
— Ammar (@ammar__one18) October 20, 2021
India will be playing their first match of the T20 World Cup 2021 on October 24, (Sunday) against Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium.

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