Hardik Pandya recently returned to the Indian team for the ongoing Test series in Australia. He had suffered an unfortunate back injury during last year’s Asia Cup. He had suffered the blow while bowling against Pakistan and was immediately stretchered off the field. Later, the BCCI had confirmed the all-rounder had suffered an acute back injury.
It forced him to remain on the sidelines for a lengthy period. Consequently, he failed to make it to the squad for the full-fledged home series against Windies as well as the T20I series and Test series in Australia. However, a five-wicket haul and a fifty in his comeback game in Ranji Trophy helped him earn a recall for the last two Tests in Australia. And he nearly injured him again on Sunday when he collided with umpire Richard Kettleborough while fielding on day four of the Sydney Test.
The incident occurred in the 63rd over when Travis Head pushed a Ravindra Jadeja delivery towards covers and set off immediately for a single. Looking to prevent the single, Pandya came charging in, collected the ball and threw it to the striker’s end. However, he kept on moving backwards due to the momentum without realising that the square-leg umpire was standing just beside him. And before the allrounder could stop, he had already collided with the umpire and fell down while Kettleborough managed to remain on his feet.
Here is a clip of that incident:
https://vimeo.com/309589746
India, meanwhile, have enforced Australia to follow on. After piling up a mammoth 622 for 7, India bowled out the hosts for exactly 300 runs. In the second innings, Australia were six for no loss before bad light brought a premature end to the day.