New Delhi: India premier white-ball all-rounder Hardik Pandya is done with his domestic warm-up and is all set to join the Indian cricket team in Cuttack on December 6, the day entire squad will assemble for the five-T20I series vs South Africa. After getting clearance from BCCI CoE, Pandya featured in two Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy games for Baroda vs Punjab on December 2 and Gujarat on December 4.As TimesofIndia.com had earlier reported, he was scheduled to play the third game – December 6 fixture vs Haryana – but there has been a later alteration to that plan and he will be linking up with Suryakumar Yadav-led squad on the same day. Some players are expected to land in Cuttack a day before – on December 5 – the official joining date and Pandya could well be one of them. The final travel arrangements are yet to be done.
After staying away from cricket due to his quadricep injury, Pandya had decent outings in the two fixtures with both bat and ball. The first game was an ordinary outing with the ball as he picked just one wicket and leaked 52 runs in four overs vs Punjab but was on fire with the bat. The right-hander smashed 77 off 42 balls, including four sixes, to help his side chase down 223 with five deliveries to spare.In his final SMAT appearance vs Gujarat, he was precise with the ball during his spell of 1/16. As far as batting was concerned, there wasn’t much to be done in the 74-run chase and he could contribute only 10 off six balls in the modest chase.India squad for T20I series against SA: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC)*, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington SundarNote: * Subject to fitness clearance from BCCI COE.
