Hardik Pandya got Mayank Agarwal out of a top-notch bouncer in GT versus PBKS IPL 2022 game.
In the strongest hint of him retaining 100% bowling fitness, premier Indian allrounder Hardik Pandya has been seen operating in excess of 140 kmph from time to time in the IPL 2022.
Captaining Gujarat Titans (GT), Hardik has been banging the ball in at hard lengths at decent clicks and making it tough for batters to line him up.
A shining example of that arrived very early in Titans’ league-stage encounter against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Friday (April 8). Bowling to the opposition’s dangerous opening batter Mayank Agarwal, the Baroda right-arm seamer managed to bounce him out inside the powerplay.
Taking responsibility to bowl the second over of the innings for the Titans, Hardik Pandya delivered a bouncer that got too big on Agarwal and had him top-edging the ball to the short mid-wicket fielder.
Having set Agarwal up with relatively fuller lengths earlier in the over, Hardik Pandya delivered a well-executed bouncer that kept rising on the batter and had him miscueing his attempted pull shot to the close-in fielder Rashid Khan.
The Titans skipper bagged the prized scalp of the opposition skipper and got his team up for a magnificent start, tilting the scales quite early in their favour on another good batting track at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Heading into the IPL 2022, Hardik Pandya’s prolonged absence from the game and particularly his inability to bowl at full tilt for a long time had been a major concern for the Indian cricket fans.
The fast-bowling allrounder had taken an extended sabbatical from the game following the end of the T20 World Cup in November last year and worked extensively hard at the NCA in Bangalore to resolve a persistent back issue.
Hardik had gone through a lower back surgery in October 2019 but wasn’t able to resume bowling at optimum speeds up until the end of this rehabilitation process nearly two and a half years later.
And now, in a sign of great encouragement, the 28-year-old is back to his usual self, running in and hitting the difficult lengths at quick speeds.