Hardik Pandya has been one of MI’s best players for quite a while now. He was one of the major reasons why MI won the last 2 auditions of the Indian Premiere League (IPL). However, he didn’t have the greatest if starts to the ongoing season. He failed with the bat and got out on a low score yesterday. In the second innings, he wasn’t even given an over to bowl as RCB managed to win the first game against MI. This raised a lot of eyebrows and many people questioned Rohit’s decision to not give Hardik a single over.
Chris Lynn gave the exact reason as to why Hardik didn’t bowl yesterday. In an interview after the match, Lynn said that Pandya was dealing with a shoulder niggle. As a result, the MI team management decided against risking him with the ball, keeping in mind the duration of the IPL. “I’m not a hundred percent sure but it’s a bit of a shoulder niggle. I think Hardik Pandya not bowling is maybe more precautionary. He’s played a fair bit of cricket leading up to this tournament, in which he has to play (minimum) 14 games as well. So you don’t want to throw your eggs in one basket and risk injury. The physios and the staff doctors will treat Hardik if there’s something wrong,” Lynn said this in response to a question from Sportskeeda. “He (Hardik Pandya) is a huge factor with the bat but if he gets bowling, then it adds another dimension to the team. We might have been missing the sixth bowler tonight but it’s early stages in the tournament. I do believe if Hardik is bowling then it brings out confidence in his batting as well. So fingers crossed we’ll see him with the ball sooner rather than later,” Lynn added. After recovering from a major back injury he suffered earlier in 2019, Hardik Pandya bowled quite impressively and without any discomfort during the recently-concluded ODI and T20I series against England. Lynn, who scored a 35-ball 49 against RCB, is hopeful about seeing Hardik Pandya bowl soon. The Aussie batsman feels the all-rounder’s presence gives MI captain Rohit Sharma a sixth bowling option to fall back upon.
He also spoke about the Chennai pitch. He felt that it was challenged. MI batsmen would have to get use to the conditions in Chennai as they will be playing a lot of matches over there this season. “We’re going to have to adapt to this Chennai wicket. It’s going to be challenging and tricky from a batting point of view but we’ve got four more games here to get it right,” concluded Chris Lynn. MI will next take on Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) at Chepauk on Tuesday.