Mohit Sharma bowled in Powerplay for Gujarat in place of Hardik Pandya.Image Credit source: PTI
Mumbai: Friday evening, May 12 at the Wankhede Stadium Mumbai Indians Named after star batsman Suryakumar Yadav. Surya scored a tremendous century and took the team to a big score of 218 runs. Surya’s name was on everyone’s lips. But apart from Surya’s name, there was also a question – why is Hardik Pandya not bowling? The captain of Gujarat Titans did not bowl a single over in the match against Mumbai, which surprised everyone.
Hardik Pandya landed on the field for the first time as the captain of Gujarat against his old team Mumbai Indians at his home ground. His start was also good and he won the toss and chose to bowl first. Gujarat’s bowling has been very good this season and especially in the powerplay it showed its effect. In such a situation, it was expected to be repeated in this match as well.
Effect shown in Powerplay
Mohammed Shami has given success to the team almost every time this season by bowling excellently in the powerplay. At the same time, to support him in most of the matches, captain Hardik Pandya used to handle the new ball, but this did not happen against Mumbai, which surprised him. Instead of Hardik, Mohit Sharma was bowled in the powerplay, who used to come for bowling after the 10th over in the previous matches.
On the basis of the pair of Hardik Pandya and Shami, Gujarat did not give many chances to the teams to start fast in the powerplay this season, but the effect of breaking the pair was seen on the score. Mumbai scored 61 runs in the first 6 overs without losing a wicket.
Is Hardik Pandya fit?
Surprisingly, Hardik Pandya did not come for bowling even once in the entire 20 overs. Now the question is bound to arise whether Hardik has suffered any kind of injury. However, during the toss before the match, Hardik did not talk about it in any way nor did he give any such indication.
Talking about Hardik’s performance, the Gujarat captain has bowled 22 overs in this season and has taken 3 wickets. Obviously the performance is not very good but his bowling helped in controlling the runs. That’s why questions are bound to arise on the fitness of Captain Hardik.
