NEW DELHI: Hardik Pandya will undergo a routine fitness assessment at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru on August 11 and 12, ahead of India’s Asia Cup 2025 squad selection, TimesofIndia.com has learnt.
The star all-rounder has been training in Mumbai since mid-July. The 31-year-old had been a pivotal cog in India’s white-ball success in the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy. In recent years, Pandya has proven to be the engine on which India’s white-ball team runs, and the team will be banking on his all-round brilliance to win the Asia Cup, which gets underway on September 9.
Before Pandya, middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer had completed his fitness assessment between July 27 and 29. Shreyas, who led Punjab Kings to the final of the IPL 2025 a year after guiding Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their third title, has not played T20Is since December 2023. It will be interesting to see whether the selectors take a chance on the experienced campaigner.
Meanwhile, Team India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav is yet to fully recover from the sports hernia surgery he underwent in June in Munich, Germany. It is learnt that Surya is expected to spend another week at the NCA to regain full fitness under the watchful eyes of the physios and medical team.
A couple of days ago, Suryakumar shared a video on Instagram showcasing his return to batting practice at the NCA, where he was also seen exercising and running to build his workload towards complete fitness.
“Can’t wait to be back doing what I love,” Suryakumar wrote in his Instagram post.
Suryakumar’s recent performance in IPL 2025 was remarkable, earning him the Most Valuable Player award with 717 runs for Mumbai Indians. He finished as the second-highest run-scorer of the season, behind Orange Cap winner Sai Sudharsan, who scored 759 runs for Gujarat Titans.