Hardik Pandya and Mahieka Sharma in frame. Image Credit: Instagram/Mahieka Sharma
India T20I Squad: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced squads for the T20I series against Ireland and England. While Vaibhav Sooryavanshi being called up to the national team and Shreyas Iyer being named the captain grabbed the headlines, there were other talking points as well. One of the notable misses from the squad remained Team India’s star all-rounder, Hardik Pandya. The fast-bowling all-rounder played a huge role when the Indian team won the T20 World Cup earlier this year. However, when Ajit Agarkar and the rest of the selectors named the squad, Pandya’s name was omitted. Here is a fact-check on whether the Mumbai Indians captain has been dropped or rested.
– Suryakumar Yadav is sad (dropped)
– Bhuvneshwar Kumar is sad (ignored)
– Rajat Patidar is sad (ignored)
– BCCI sends a message to Hardik Pandya by selecting Nitish Reddy over him: “If you’re not fit, we need to prepare backup options.” 😳Meanwhile Hardik Pandya 😂🔥 pic.twitter.com/8x4GEY2L1X
— Jara (@JARA_Memer) June 6, 2026
Meanwhile, while the cricket fans in India discuss as to why Hardik Pandya was not named in the T20I squad, he was seen enjoying some quality time with his girlfriend, Mahieka Sharma.
Nitish Kumar Reddy has been looked at as a possible replacement of Hardik Pandya across formats for the last couple of years. Reddy rose to prominence for his performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, where he was named the Emerging Player of the Season. Since then, he has regularly featured in squads for the Indian team across the three formats. However, with a limited number of playing opportunities at the international level, the SRH all-rounder is yet to show if he has the ability to replace Hardik Pandya.
Ajit Agarkar while addressing the media after announcing the squad was asked about Hardik Pandya’s unavailability from the squad. The chief selector said, “He (Hardik) is a part of the one-day squad right now in (the) Afghanistan (series). Like Bumrah, if we can get him playing well and keep him fit for one-day cricket — I don’t think he’s played one-day cricket for a while — that is, at this point, the main objective.”
Meanwhile, Agarkar also stressed upon the fact that by not naming Hardik in the squad it gives the team a chance to test out Nitish Reddy. “It also gives us an opportunity to give someone like Nitish Reddy a few opportunities with T20 cricket. So, there will be a little bit of rest and rotation with regards to T20,” the selector added.
The explanation from the former Indian fast bowler suggest that Pandya is not dropped from the format but rested. With the next ICC tournament being the ODI World Cup, the Indian team and their star all-rounder will focusing on their preparations for the One-Day format.
Pragun is a passionate cricket follower and writer who deeply loves the game. Having completed his education with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has an experience of almost two years in diverse fields. He is known for his statistical and analytical articles. Pragun tries to bring life to his articles by adding a layer of enthusiasm from the perspective of a hardcore fan. Apart from writing cricket articles, he sometimes appears on YouTube videos on a friend’s podcast.
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