Why Hardik Pandya is not Playing against Chennai?

Gujarat are currently playing against Chennai in the 29th match of the Indian T20 League 2022 on Sunday at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. However, unfortunately, Hardik Pandya isn’t playing the match for them today. Rashid Khan, the stand-in captain, came for the toss and updated the reason behind Hardik Pandya’s unavailability in the match.

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The Afghanistan cricketer revealed that Hardik Pandya had stiffness in his groin and the team wouldn’t want to risk playing him as Gujarat have a 6-day break before their next game. The franchise, thus, have decided to rest him for the ongoing fixture.

"A little bit of stiffness in his groin, I think as a team we really didn't want to take that chance to play this one. We have a good break after this game and hopefully, he'll be back for the next game." Rashid Khan said at the toss.

Hardik Pandya is currently in brilliant form. He has been dishing out sensational performances with the bat and is also proving handy with the ball. Pandya played a sensational knock of 87 runs in 52 balls in the last game against Rajasthan, helping the team reach a formidable score of 192 runs in the first innings. Gujarat then restricted Rajasthan to just 155, thus, winning the game by 37 runs.

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Currently, Hardik Pandya is the third-highest run-scorer in the Indian T20 League 2022. In 5 matches, he has managed to score 228 runs at an average of 76.00. Gujarat is comfortably sitting at the top of the points table with 4 wins in 5 matches. They would be looking to earn their fifth win in the tournament today.

Talking about the ongoing game, Gujarat have bowled pretty well so far as Chennai have only managed 54 runs for the loss of two wickets in 8.3 overs. Ruturaj Gaikwad, though, is at the crease. He is unbeaten on 38 of 29 balls.