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Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya will miss the three-ODI away series against Sri Lanka which begins on Friday due to undisclosed personal reasons. He was part of the recent T20I series against Sri Lanka and will now get a break ahead of the series against Bangladesh in September-October.
Pandya has gone through a lot of ups and downs in recent months. He was one of the top performers when India won the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and bowled the impactful final over.
However, soon after the tournament he and his wife, Natasa Stankovic, announced their separation on social media. Then, despite being India's temporary T20 captain on multiple occasions before the World Cup, he didn't get the armband for the shortest format against Sri Lanka with the selectors zeroing in on Suryakumar Yadav to take the team forward after Rohit Sharma's retirement.
"As far as Hardik is concerned, he is still a very important player," chief selector Ajit Agarkar had said before the tour of Sri Lanka explaining the call. "And that's what we want him to be, those skillsets are hard to find. Fitness has been something that he's struggled with. As selectors, it becomes difficult then. The thought behind it was that we want someone (as captain) who is likely to be available more."
Before all this, he went through a tumultuous IPL 2024 where the captaincy takeover from Rohit Sharma got him boos from the Mumbai Indians fans and ended in a last-placed finish for the team. However, Hardik looked in good spirits during the T20I series, both on the field and in the dressing room videos shared by the board.
India's playing 11 without Hardik Pandya
Hardik's last ODI came at the 2023 World Cup against Bangladesh. India has entrusted that place to Shivam Dube for the first ODI against Sri Lanka, while Axar Patel and Washington Sundar are playing as spin all-rounders.
India's playing 11: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj.
