India vs Australia: Hardik Pandya trains with Team India, helps injured security guard

IND vs AUS: Hardik Pandya bowled for around 10 minutes and then spent time standing behind the nets, watching his colleagues go through the paces. He bowled within himself, without exerting too much.

Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya was seen bowling under the watchful eyes of bowling coach Bharat Arun on Monday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. India are slated to take on Australia in the 1st one day international in Mumbai and Pandya was practising along with the team.

Hardik Pandya helps a security person who was hit on the chest by a ball during Team India’s practice session at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai ahead of the 1st ODI against Australia. (HT Photo/Anshuman Poyrekar)

Pandya, who was selected to tour New Zealand along with the India A team, pulled out on Sunday due to injury concerns. The all-rounder has been out of action since playing in the T20I series against South Africa in September 2019. He underwent a lower back surgery and has been in rehabilitation since.

On Monday, Pandya bowled for around 10 minutes and then spent time standing behind the nets, watching his colleagues go through the paces. He bowled within himself, without exerting too much.

Pandya was in the thick of things a little later again as he rushed to help a security person, who was hit by a shot flush on his chest. Arfat Qureshi, the security person, was standing below the press box and was caught unawares by one of the practice hits. Pandya immediately ran to the injured staff and took him to the ambulance.

Earlier, Pandya’s personal trainer S Rajnikanth said that the all-rounder is fit and that there was no fitness test conducted by the BCCI. His trainer has taken the call that Pandya should continue with his training for now to test his bowling workload, but then, he should not be exposed to workload in international matches. “He is 100% fit. There is no doubt about that. But I don’t want him to take the workload of back-to-back international matches. No fitness test has been conducted for Pandya yet, so there’s no question of him failing any test,” Rajnikanth told Times of India.