Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond has opened up on all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s absence in the last two Indian Premier League (IPL) games. So far in the UAE leg of the tournament, the Rohit Sharma-led side has played against Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders while Pandya didn’t feature in any of the games. Speaking of his availability in the upcoming games, Bond said the all-rounder was training well and hopefully will make a mark in the business end of the tournament.

While addressing a virtual presser, Bond said Hardik is ‘close to playing’ but the team management won’t rush him back as the franchise is also keeping in mind the needs of the Indian team while managing his workload.

“Look, Hardik is training well, like Rohit. He is getting closer to playing. We are obviously balancing the needs of our team with the needs of Team India as well,” Bond said at the post-match press conference when asked about Hardik’s status.

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MI suffered a seven-wicket loss to Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday in their IPL game. It was after their 20-run loss to Chennai Super Kings in the first game after resumption.

“The one thing that this franchise does very well is look after its players with an eye on not only to try and win this competition but also on the T20 World Cup that’s following on. We are hopeful that Hardik will be back for the next match. As I said, he has trained today and trained pretty well by all counts,” said the former New Zealand fast bowler.

Mumbai head coach Mahela Jayawardene had earlier said that Hardik was kept out of the IPL game against Chennai Super Kings as a precautionary measure as he had a little niggle. Bond backed the team management’s decision to not play Hardik in the first two matches.

“We are obviously desperate to put him back out on the field. But like anything you have to balance everything up, you have to also consider what the player wants. There’s also no point rushing him back to get injured to miss the rest of the tournament when we may have a chance to win it,” he said.

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“I think we are doing the right thing and hopeful (that) we will get him back shortly and he’ll have an impact on the back-end of the tournament and get us into the playoffs and hopefully win the tournament from there,” Bond added.

(With PTI Inputs)