Team India has gotten off to a brilliant start, and that is visible in their performance. The hosts are sitting at the top of the table with ten points. They have not lost even a single game and are looking the team to beat.
India will be facing defending champion England in their next game. That match will take place on Sunday at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. England is having a rough time and has lost three out of their first four games. But it will be hard to write them off.
India did well in their last game without Hardik Pandya and won the game by four wickets in Dharamsala. The all-rounder suffered an ankle injury in the game against Bangladesh and was ruled out of the game against New Zealand. However, there were reports that he was likely to be fit for the game against England on Sunday.
But now, some media reports claim that Hardik is not fully fit and is likely to miss India’s next two games against England and Sri Lanka on October 29 and November 2, respectively. The all-rounder is at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) at the moment and might join the team before November 5 against South Africa.
Further reports also claimed that he hasn’t started bowling yet in the nets. It will be a big setback for India, as Hardik Pandya is an important link in the team in both departments. The management will not want to rush him and will look to give him time.
An NCA source said, “He is still under medication, and the swelling on his left ankle has subsided considerably. He will start bowling only towards the weekend. Right now, important is to give him time to recover.”
Notably, India had to make two changes in the game to fill his role against New Zealand. Mohammed Shami and Suryakumar Yadav played that match. Shami had a brilliant game and took 5/54 with the ball, but SKY wasn’t that lucky. He got out for two runs with an unfortunate runout.
