Hardik Pandya Joins Team India In New York, Talks About ‘Good Vibe’ As Rohit Sharma Looks On: WATCH

Hardik Pandya joined Team India, which began its preparations for the upcoming T20 World Cup with its first training session in New York. This development comes after a period of speculation regarding Pandya‘s whereabouts.

In a video posted by the BCCI on social media, Pandya can be seen going through some basic drills, seemingly in good spirits. India captain Rohit Sharma was also present and observing the session closely.

“Very exciting to be here in New York. Has a good vibe. Bright sun out,” Pandya said in what was his first reaction since the end of Mumbai Indian’s IPL campaign.

“We came in the day before yesterday and just eased into our routines here. The idea was to get used to the time zone. Today we have our first ground session,” said Soham Desai, strength and conditioning coach of the Indian national men’s cricket team, on Wednesday.

“They have been away for 2 and a half months from us. Just getting them together to know where they stand and what needs to be done before the World Cup was the goal. The goal today is to spend 45 mins to an hour on the park in this heat or whatever to get again going,” he added.

Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh and Suryakumar Yadav were also present during the drills.

“We have not yet played cricket. Come here for a team activity today. Hopefully, it’ll be good. The weather is really good, so looking forward to it,” said Bumrah.

“First time we are gonna play cricket in New York. It’s gonna be super super fun,” said Ravindra Jadeja.

“I heard cricket is growing here in the US so we are really excited,” added Suryakumar.

Virat Kohli was a notable miss as he is still in Mumbai.

India are set to play a warm-up match against Bangladesh and thereafter begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5.