Mohit Sharma bowled in Powerplay for Gujarat in place of Hardik Pandya.Image Credit source: PTI
New Delhi: Gujarat Titans, captained by Hardik Pandya, is performing strongly in the second consecutive IPL season. Trying to save its title, Gujarat has the highest number of points so far this season and is at number one in the table. Meanwhile, the team had to face defeat in a big match against Mumbai Indians. The loss to the team was not much due to the defeat, but there has definitely been tension regarding the fitness of captain Hardik Pandya.
On Friday, 12 May, Mumbai Indians defeated Gujarat by 27 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Mumbai had scored 218 runs while batting first in this match. One thing caught everyone’s attention during the Mumbai innings and it was Hardik Pandya. The Gujarat captain did not bowl a single over in this match. Before this match, Hardik had bowled with new ball in almost every match.
The answer was not received before the match and during the match and there was speculation that Hardik did not bowl possibly due to injury. After the match, the team’s bowling coach Ashish Kapoor also confirmed this. When Kapoor, who came to the press conference after the team’s defeat, was asked about this, he told that just before the match, the Gujarat captain had a backache.
Due to this, Gujarat had to change its plan as soon as the match started. Mohit Sharma was brought in for the new ball partnership with Mohammed Shami. However, none of Gujarat’s plans could work in front of the Mumbai batsmen.
Now the question is how serious is Hardik’s injury. Ashish Kapoor did not tell anything about this but the Gujarat captain has been troubled by back injury earlier also. In 2018, he suffered a back injury during the Asia Cup. This injury became serious in 2019, which put Hardik’s career in trouble. It was only after back surgery that Hardik returned from IPL 2022 and made the team the champion.
Source: www.tv9hindi.com
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