[WATCH] Hardik Pandya returns to Mumbai after completing fitness tests before Asia Cup 2025

Just after the end of the five-match Test series between England and India, the focus has shifted to the white-ball assignments for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025, which will be played in the shortest format, keeping in mind the upcoming T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka. All the games will be played across Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

For the T20 format, India’s balance comes in the presence of the pace bowling all-rounder, Hardik Pandya. The right-handed batter has the skill of smashing the big shots late in the batting order, while he could also provide a few overs with the ball in the middle overs or even in the powerplay if needed.

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A video has gone viral recently, when Hardik has been seen to return to Mumbai after completing his fitness test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) ahead of the competition. The assessment took place on August 11 and 12, with the star training in Mumbai before that for quite some time.

Watch: Hardik Pandya returns to Mumbai after completing fitness assessment at NCA

The reports added that, along with Hardik, the T20I captain of the side, Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer, were also present in the fitness check. The former hasn’t recovered fully from the hernia surgery that he went through a few months ago and needs another week at the NCA to regain fitness. However, that shouldn’t affect his chances of playing in the Asia Cup.

Hardik has overall smacked 1812 runs in 90 innings of the T20Is at an average of 27.87 and a strike rate of 141.67 with the help of five half-centuries at the best score of unbeaten 71 runs. With the ball, the right-arm pacer has picked up 94 scalps in 102 innings at an average of 26.43 and an economy rate of 8.20.

The Baroda all-rounder was in excellent form during the recently concluded IPL 2025 for the Mumbai Indians, where he drilled 224 runs in 12 innings at an average of 24.88 and a strike rate of 163.50, besides claiming 14 wickets at an economy rate of under 10. India’s opening game of the Asia Cup 2025 will be against the UAE on September 10.