Gambhir said Hardik could not go to the World Cup half-cooked, and a shin injury has cost him his next three games
Hardik Pandya has a right tibial bone stress response and is out of India A’s one-day series against Australia A in Puducherry, four months after his last competitive game.
Sep 27, 2026
Gautam Gambhir was clear about what Hardik Pandya needed before the 2027 World Cup. “Especially for Hardik, because he needs game time as well,” India’s coach told JioStar this week. “Because after the IPL he hasn’t played a lot of cricket. Game time going into the World Cup is going to be extremely, extremely important. You cannot go there half-cooked.”
The game time was lined up. Pandya was named in the India A squad for three one-dayers against Australia A in Puducherry on 6, 9 and 11 October, subject to a fitness clearance. That clearance is not coming. The BCCI’s Centre of Excellence has diagnosed a symptomatic right tibial bone stress response, and he is out of the series.
What the scan found
It could have been worse. The CoE’s medical team found no structural damage and no established stress fracture, and it has prescribed two weeks of rest as a precaution. But bone stress in the shin does not usually clear in a fortnight. Recovery from this kind of injury tends to take four to six weeks, and even the short end of that range runs past the Puducherry series.
The long end runs into New Zealand. India’s tour there starts with five T20Is from 22 October in Christchurch, followed by five ODIs from 4 November. Whether Pandya makes either leg now depends on how the shin responds to the rest, and on how much bowling the CoE is willing to sign off on afterwards.
Four months, and still no match
This is the part that wears on India. Pandya has not played a competitive game since Mumbai Indians’ last IPL match on 24 May. He arrived at the CoE in Bengaluru on 2 June and has barely left it. A back spasm had already cost him part of Mumbai Indians’ season, a quadriceps problem in June kept him out of the Afghanistan ODIs, and at the start of September he was told to stop bowling after feeling discomfort in his leg.
Each setback has been different. The result keeps being the same. His last game for India was the T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad on 8 March, and his last ODI goes back further still, to the Champions Trophy final in March 2025.
Why India keep waiting
Gambhir explained the patience himself. “Very few teams have a player like that who can bowl 10 overs for you, plus bat at number six or seven, plus with that impact,” he said. He put Pandya alongside Jasprit Bumrah as the two players who would be “extremely important for us in South Africa”.
He is right about the rarity. India have spent years looking for a seam-bowling all-rounder who can carry a full ODI workload, and Pandya is still the best of the few who have done it at the top level. The problem is that the bowling is the bit his body keeps refusing. A Pandya who bats at six and bowls four overs is a good player. The one Gambhir described, with 10 overs in him, has been hard to find since the 2023 World Cup, when an ankle injury in the group stage ended his tournament.
There are still 12 months until the World Cup. That is enough time for Pandya to get fit and play. It is not enough time for many more lost months like these.