[Watch] "Fine tuning"- Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya does intense fielding drills in preparation ahead of IPL 2024

Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya is working hard in the nets to get himself ready for the upcoming IPL 2024.

Pandya has been on the sidelines since suffering an ankle injury during the 2023 World Cup match against Bangladesh in Pune in October last year. He could not participate in the remaining World Cup games due to the same and also missed the T20I series against Australia, South Africa, and Afghanistan.

Hardik hopes to return to the field during the upcoming season of IPL, where he will lead Mumbai Indians for the first time. He returned to his former franchise, courtesy of an all-money trade between MI and Gujarat Titans (GT).

Pandya took to his official Instagram handle on Tuesday (February 20) and shared a reel to give his fans a glimpse of the intense work he is putting in behind the scenes. He captioned the post:

"Fine tuning 💥."

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"He can do pretty much what Hardik Pandya could do" - Sunil Gavaskar on Gujarat Titans' all-rounder Vijay Shankar

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar recently analyzed the backup options available for Gujarat Titans to replace Pandya, who left them ahead of the new season. Gavaskar chose Vijay Shankar to fill the role that Hardik played for GT in the past two seasons.

Appearing on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar said:

"Vijay Shankar would have learned so much from Hardik Pandya. How Pandya adapted to a particular situation, how he bowled in certain situations, if he has learned from that, he can do pretty much what Hardik Pandya could do."

He added:

"Not maybe have the same kind of impact but even if he has about 80 or 90% of the impact and the game-changing abilities that Pandya had, he would have done wonderfully for his team."

Vijay Shankar had a decent IPL 2023, scoring 301 runs across 14 games at a good strike rate of 160.