{"id":16082,"date":"2026-05-15T07:42:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/2026\/05\/15\/ipl-2026-hardik-pandya-likely-to-return-for-kkr-clash-confirms-mumbai-indians-teammate\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:42:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:42:06","slug":"ipl-2026-hardik-pandya-likely-to-return-for-kkr-clash-confirms-mumbai-indians-teammate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/?p=16082","title":{"rendered":"IPL 2026 | Hardik Pandya likely to return for KKR clash, confirms Mumbai Indians teammate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131111027,imgsize-50504,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/pandya-1505-ipl.jpg\" alt=\"IPL 2026 | Hardik Pandya likely to return for KKR clash, confirms Mumbai Indians teammate\" title=\"&lt;p&gt;Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI\/IPL) &lt;\/p&gt;\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI\/IPL) \"><\/p>\n<p>Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI\/IPL) <\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEW DELHI: When will <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/player-profile\/hardik-pandya\/63751\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Hardik Pandya<\/a> return? How serious is his injury? When will the <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/mumbai-indians\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Mumbai Indians<\/a> captain be back in action? These are some of the questions dominating social media as Pandya has now missed three consecutive matches for Mumbai Indians.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>Sidelined with a back spasm, Pandya first missed Mumbai Indians\u2019 home clash against Lucknow Super Giants on May 4. He then sat out the game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur despite travelling with the squad. In his absence, <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/player-profile\/suryakumar-yadav\/11803\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Suryakumar Yadav<\/a> led the side.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"10\"\/> <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"13\"\/>Pandya also did not travel to Dharamsala for Mumbai Indians\u2019 six-wicket win over Punjab Kings, where Jasprit Bumrah became MI\u2019s third captain this season after Suryakumar missed the game following the birth of his child.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>Mumbai Indians all-rounder Shardul Thakur provided a major update on Pandya and confirmed that the all-rounder\u2019s absence from the last three games was injury-related.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>Shardul also hinted that Pandya could return for Mumbai Indians\u2019 next match against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on May 20, while dismissing speculation surrounding the MI captain\u2019s future with the franchise.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>&#8220;Hardik is injured, so he couldn&#8217;t travel for a couple of games,&#8221; Thakur said during the post-match media interaction on Thursday.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>&#8220;He went to Raipur (for the RCB match on May 10), but couldn&#8217;t play. He is training in Mumbai now and I expect him to be back in Kolkata and play (at Eden Gardens on May 20). Players like them, we always miss the quality,&#8221; Thakur added.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/>Mumbai Indians have already been eliminated from IPL 2026, and Pandya\u2019s poor form has been one of the major reasons behind the team\u2019s disappointing campaign.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"28\"\/>The all-rounder has endured a difficult season both as captain and player.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"30\"\/>In eight innings, Pandya has scored 146 runs at an average of 20.85 and a strike rate of 136.44, with a highest score of 40. With the ball, he has picked up just four wickets at an average of 61.50 and an economy rate of nearly 11.90 in 20.4 overs.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"32\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/ipl\/ipl-2026\/hardik-pandya-likely-to-return-for-kkr-clash-confirms-mumbai-indians-teammate\/articleshow\/131110989.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI\/IPL) NEW DELHI: When will Hardik Pandya return? How serious is his injury? When will the Mumbai Indians captain be back in action? These are some of the questions dominating social media as Pandya has now missed three consecutive matches for Mumbai Indians.Sidelined with a back spasm, Pandya first missed Mumbai&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}