BRISBANE: India’s premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya will not be playing first few games of the Vijay Hazare Trophy due to personal reasons but will link up with the Krunal Pandya-led squad towards the later stage of the tournament.
It is understood that Hardik has already conveyed his availability schedule to the Baroda side and is keen to feature in the domestic 50-over tournament.
Additionally, young Nitya Pandya, who is with Baroda U-19 for the Cooch Behar Trophy knockouts, will join the squad after their current commitment.
During the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), which Mumbai won by beating Madhya Pradesh in the final, Hardik scored 246 runs from seven matches, including two fifties, at an average of 49.20 and a strike rate of 193.70. He was also potent with the ball, taking six wickets with best figures of 3/27 against Bengal.
The Krunal Pandya-led Baroda team went past Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Karnataka in the group stage before easing past Bengal to book a place in the last-four.
In the semi-final, Mumbai romped to victory by 6-wickets with 16 balls to spare. Krunal was among the runs in the knockout game, scoring 30 off 24 balls, but Ajinkya Rahane’s 98 runs from 56 balls proved decisive in taking the game away from them.
Krunal, meanwhile, took eight wickets for Baroda during the T20 competition, with best figures of 2/19, at an average of 26.25.
The Vijay Hazare Trophy gets underway on 21 December with Baroda facing Tripura in their opener in Group E. Other teams in the group are Kerala, Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
After the group stage, the teams will move to preliminary quarterfinals followed by quarterfinals, semi-final and the final in Vadodara on 18 January, 2025.
