Hardik Pandya included in Baroda squad for Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai
India’s star all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been included in Baroda squad for the 6th round Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai to be played from 14th December. Due to the injury that he suffered during the 2018 Asia Cup match against Pakistan, he could not take part in the West Indies series at home and was ruled of T20I series against West Indies and Australia.
Baroda defeated Chhattisgarh in the previous match. The inclusion of Hardik Pandya would certainly boost their chances of beating Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium. Baroda have played so far 5 games, drawing 3, winning 1 and losing 1.
In Group A, Baroda is currently 3rd in the points table but combined with Group A and Group, Baroda are currently 5th. Pandya was not included in the squad for the Test series against Australia as he was still recovering from his injury. In his absence, the Indian Cricket team won the first Test match by 31 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
He replaces Babashafi Pathan in the Baroda squad. Apart from Hardik Pandya, Yusuf Pathan is also included in the 15 man squad for the match against Mumbai. The 41-time Champions Mumbai are currently second from bottom with only 5 points.
Hardik Pandya played a key role in India’s tour of England taking his first 5 wicket haul in Test cricket against England at Nottingham, Trent Bridge and helped India register a historic win. He has been a part of India’s ODI squad taking 45 wickets from 38 matches. With the bat, he scored so far 629 runs.
Baroda will be looking to register 6 points and improve their chances of qualifying for the knockouts and will be banking on their stars to perform while Pandya would be targeting India’s 3-match ODI series against Australia in January 2019.
Baroda squad: Kedar Devdhar(C), Aditya Waghmode, Vishnu Solanki, Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Singh, Bhargav Bhatt, Soeb Tai, Rishi Arothe, Lukman Meriwala, Shivalik Sharma, Mitesh Patel, Dhiren Mistry, Soparia, Pratyush Kumar, Hardik Pandya.