India’s experienced pace-bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya is working hard at the Centre of Excellence (CoE), Bengaluru to regain his fitness. Earlier this month, he was ruled out of the Afghanistan ODI series due to a left leg quadriceps strain and wasn’t picked for UK tour featuring T20Is against Ireland and limited overs series against England. Now, Pandya has opted to go for the performance block route, a fitness programme opted by Harshit Rana who was recovering from a knee surgery.
As per a report by TOI, the cricketing programme was limited to age-group and zonal camps. Earlier, an injured player needed clinical clearance after playing simulation games But, CoE lacked a pool of quality players to participate in simulation matches which isn't the case now.
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Hardik's selection hinged on his ability to bowl 10 overs in an ODI game as India begin preparation for the ODI World Cup 2027 on South Africa soil. He had reported to CoE after the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 as he missed a few games due to back spasms. He recovered from back spasms but sustained a quadriceps injury.
What is Hardik’s next target?
The report further revealed that Hardik has made up his mind. He doesn't just want to regain full fitness before his return but fine-tune his skills as well.
“He doesn’t want to push himself and jeopardise his body with the ODI World Cup 16 months away. He contacted CoE and joined the performance block. He wants to work on specific cricket skills besides attaining prime fitness,” a source told the English daily.
Under the performance block programme, a pacer's bowling workload is increased gradually. If bowler struggles isn't able to bowl well in a session, their return to play is likely to be delayed. In Hardik's case, he will be targetting his ODI return for the ODI series against West Indies.
When was Hardik’s previous List A game?
Notably, Hardik hasn’t played an ODI since the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final. His focus was on T20 World Cup 2026. The two-time T20 World Cup-winner did play a few List A games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 earlier this year while he wasn’t picked for ODI series against New Zealand.