‘On National Duty’: Hardik Pandya Joins the Indian Squad in New York Ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024

T20 World Cup 2024: All-rounder Hardik Pandya has joined with his teammates in New York as the Indian squad began preparations for the upcoming T20 WC, scheduled to be held next month in the USA and Caribbean.

The first batch of players, including skipper Rohit Sharma, left for USA on Saturday (May 25) from Mumbai. The travelling group did not feature vice captain Pandya, who was expected to join the team from London.

After a dismal IPL 2024 campaign as skipper of Mumbai Indians, Pandya had flown to London for training after he was selected for the Indian T20 World Cup 2024 squad. And on Wednesday (May 29), the all-rounder took to social media to reveal he had linked up with the team.

A lot seems to be happening in the personal and professional life of Hardik Pandya. In his personal life, Hardik may not have commented anything on the divorce rumours but he and his wife Natasa Stankovic have not made a public appearance together in recent times with Natasa even dropping the surname ‘Pandya’ from her Instagram account, hinting at a possible strain in their relationship. Post the IPL and the stress around his relationship, Hardik went for a vacation at an undisclosed overseas location.

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The 30-year-old posted a few pictures of him training along with the rest of the Indian squad on X with the caption: “On national duty”. This was Hardik’s first post on X since May 6th when Mumbai Indians won the match in IPL 2024.

On national duty 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/pDji7UkUSm

— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) May 29, 2024

Apart from Hardik, 4 more players also arrived in New York to link up with the rest of the squad as the Rajasthan Royals trio of Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan and Yashasvi Jaiswal joined their skipper Sanju Samson, who was already pictured in practice.

17 of the 18 members of the Indian squad and the coaching staff are in New York with only Virat Kohli yet to fly out to the west. The star batter is expected to leave for the USA in the next few days, but will reportedly miss the solitary warm-up match.

Virat Kohli, who is fresh from a good IPL 2024 with the bat, winning the Orange Cap, is likely to miss Team India’s only practice match before the tournament begins at the weekend.

India is scheduled to face Bangladesh in a warm-up match on Saturday (June 1) before they open their T20 World Cup 2024 group stage campaign against Ireland on Wednesday (June 5) in New York.

India squad for T20 World Cup 2024

Rohit Sharma (captain), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah. Stand By: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan.

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