IPL 2021: ‘Hardik Pandya will be seen bowling very soon,’ reveals Zaheer Khan

Ever since Hardik Pandya made a comeback after a lower back injury in 2019 his workload management has become the central focus of many a discussionThe Indian team have used him sparingly in the last two series against Australia and England And now Mumbai Indians too are treading with cautionPandya has been underutilised by India captain Virat Kohli who expects him to play a crucial role in the World Test Championship final in June He bowled just four overs in the second ODI against Australia at Sydney last November and nine overs in the third ODI against England at PuneWhile he did not bowl in the T20Is in Australia Pandya rolled his arm over in the five T20Is against England at Ahmedabad and completed his full quota of four overs in only three matches The allrounder last bowled for Mumbai Indians in the 2019 edition claiming 14 wickets In MIrsquos opening loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai on Friday one expected Pandya to be used for a couple of overs after Rahul Chahar went for 43 runs in his four oversHowever Mumbai Indiansrsquo Director of Cricket Operations Zaheer Khan confirmed that Pandya had a ldquoshoulder concernrdquo in the opening game that saw him often throwing the ball underarm while fielding However Zaheer insisted that Pandya will be seen bowling very soonZaheer Khan PicYogen ShahldquoHardik as a whole package is of great value It was a workloadrelated thing in the previous game that he didnrsquot bowl He bowled in the IndiaEngland series in the last ODI he bowled about nine overs and thatrsquos why in consultation with the physios we had to take that approachrdquo Zaheer said on the eve of the clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders at ChennaildquoThere was a little bit of a shoulder concern I donrsquot think itrsquos worrisome you will very soon see him bowl For the exact timelines yoursquoll have to ask the physio but in terms of Hardik the bowler coming in this tournament we are very confident that he will be chipping inrdquoZaheer said that MI have enough options for a sixth bowler nevertheless ldquoPollard is our sixth bowling option Hersquos an experienced campaigner so hersquos definitely going to be our sixth bowling option And whenever Hardik is available hersquos going to be a bowling option as well Wersquore not too concerned in that departmentrdquo said the former India pace greatMumbai Indians may have once again lost their first match of their IPL campaign for the ninth time in succession but they have managed to win their second match on four of the last five occasions And three of those wins have come against KKR MI also maintain a strong dominance over KKR with a 216 winloss record In the last four IPL editions KKR have managed just one win over MI in 2019 at Eden GardensHowever under captain Eoin Morgan KKR seem to have a renewed vigor and aggressive approach too going by their dominant win against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday