Hardik Pandya set to be sidelined for several months after undergoing back surgery

In what could be a potentially telling blow to the Indian cricket team going forward, all-rounder Hardik Pandya is all set to be ruled out of cricketing action for a considerable while after undergoing back surgery for a lower back injury in London on Saturday. The 25-year-old confirmed the news through an Instagram post, adding that he will be back on the cricket field in no time.

While there is no clarity on how much time he will exactly be ruled out for, it looks highly likely that Pandya might end up missing the T20Is and Tests against Bangladesh and the ODIs against the Windies and Australia and the T20Is against Sri Lanka, all of which are scheduled to happen before February 2020. It was earlier reported that Pandya might miss four to six months of action and with players usually taking time to recover from back surgeries, that might very well be the case.

The Mumbai Indians star first sustained the injury against Pakistan in an Asia cup clash last year when he fell at the bowling crease and was stretchered off the field. The injury was nurtured, managed and Pandya eventually featured in both the Indian Premier League (IPL) and World Cup but missed out on the West Indies tour due to injury. He then made a comeback in the T20Is against the Proteas but was left out of the Test squad due to tactical reasons. Considering his long term well being into account, the all-rounder has now decided to go ahead with the back surgery.