Hardik Pandya will turn up to play the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s domestic T20 tournament, under brother Krunal Pandya’s captaincy. Hardik will bolster the Baroda squad as they look to do one better than runner-up finish from last year’s edition.
India’s premier all-rounder recently featured in the four T20Is vs South Africa and will now join the Baroda squad for what is going to be a star-studded tournament featuring plenty of international regulars. Hardik last played in the SMAT back in the 2016 edition as his India commitments didn’t allow him a window to feature for the domestic side.
Krunal, meanwhile, has been in top touch and has had a stellar start to the domestic season. The southpaw led Baroda in the first phase of the Ranji Trophy and the side won four matches, including a famous win over Mumbai, out of their five fixtures to top Group A of the Elite Division.
It has been a memorable season for the left-hander with the bat, too, as he has accumulated 367 runs from seven innings and has hit a hundred and three half-centuries. Prior to the red-ball tournament, he featured in the KSCA (Karnataka State Cricket Association) tournament where he scored a hundred in the final to lead the side to the title.
He would now look to continue with the run in the shortest format and do more of what he did in the 2023 edition of the SMAT. Baroda lost the title clash to Punjab under Krunal’s captaincy and the all-rounder was the side’s leading run-getter with 323 runs, including three half-centuries. He was very effective with the ball too and chipped in with seven wickets and went at an economy rate of just 6.03.
The domestic competition will get underway on 23 November and Baroda are placed in Group B alongside Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Saurashtra, Karnataka and Sikkim.