'On national duty': Hardik Pandya joins Team India ahead of T20 WC opener

Star India allrounder Hardik Pandya joined Team India in New York ahead of their T20 World Cup 2024 opening clash against Ireland that will take place on June 5The T20 World Cup 2024 will be played in the West Indies and the USA from June 1 to 29 The Men in Blue will also play Bangladesh in their only warmup game on June 1 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New YorkTaking to Instagram on Wednesday Pandya announced that he is on national duty and has joined the Men in Blue ahead of the tournament training hard in their quest to end the teams decadelong trophy drought despite consistently great performances in ICC tournamentsView this post on InstagramA post shared by Hardik Himanshu Pandya hardikpandya93Hardik is coming into the team after a poor Indian Premier League IPL 2024 campaign The ongoing Indian Premier League IPL season was one to forget for fivetime champions MI and Pandya They brought back Pandya after a twoyear stint with Gujarat Titans GT which saw the allrounder captaining the team to the title in their debut season in 2022 Replacing Rohit Sharma a fivetime IPLwinning captain for the Blue and Gold side led to massive social media backlash for the allrounder and franchise Pandya was booed in stadiums all over India during his matches and the team finished at the bottom of the points table with four wins 10 losses and eight points Pandya who had played a crucial role in the franchises success from 201521 could not put up matchwinning performancesIn 14 matches Pandya scored 216 runs at an average of 1800 and a strike rate of 14304 with the best score of 46 He also took 11 wickets at a poor average of 3518 and an economy rate of 1075Also ReadIPL 2024 final Despair for some delight for othersBut in Indian colours fans are expecting the allrounder to be at his best and overcome all the mental emotional and physical baggage that came with a poor IPL season Hardiks ability to soak pressure and perform well in big matches especially against Pakistan makes him an extremely crucial player for Men in Blue His batting form and ability to deliver some quality pace will play a big role in deciding how far India goes in the tournament In 16 T20 WC matches and 10 innings Pandya has scored 213 runs at an average of 2366 and a strike rate of 13653 with one fifty He has also taken 13 wickets in the tournament at an average of 2530 and an economy rate of 913 with the best figures of 330India will start their T20 World Cup campaign on June 5 against Ireland at the newly constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New YorkMeanwhile the mostawaited blockbuster clash between India and Pakistan will take place on June 9 They will later play tournament cohosts USA June 12 and Canada June 15 to wrap up their Group A matchesIn the tournament India will be aiming to end their ICC trophy drought having last won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 Since then India has reached the 50over World Cup final in 2023 semifinal in 2015 and 2019 the title clash of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and 2023 T20 WC final in 2014 semifinals in 2016 and 2022 but failed to secure a big ICC trophyIndia will be aiming to win their first T20 WC title since they won the inaugural edition of the tournament back in 2007 in South Africa In the last edition held in Australia in 2022 India lost to England by 10 wickets in the semifinalsWith agency inputs