Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya has made his much awaited return to the field of cricket as he leads the Reliance 1 side in the DY Patil T20 tournament.

Upon his return to competitive cricket for the first time since the ODI World Cup, Hardik pocketed two for 22 in three overs for Reliance in their opening mach against ONGC.

Pandya has not played international cricket for India since suffering an ankle injury during India's ICC Cricket World Cup group stage match against Bangladesh in October last year.

He missed out on the series of five T20Is against Australia at home, the tour to South Africa as well, which consisted of three ODIs and T20Is each. Suryakumar Yadav, the number-one ranked T20I batter, stepped up as captain in Pandya's absence.

Ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season, last November Pandya was traded to Mumbai Indians (MI) from the Gujarat Titans (GT), replacing their five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy-winning MI skipper Rohit Sharma in the 2024 season of the cash-rich league.

Pandya is leading a star studded line-up that features the likes of Tilak Verma, Nehal Wadhera, Akash Madhwal and Piyush Chawla.

These players could feature with MI under the leadership of Pandya.

But in the upcoming T20 World Cup, which is slated to be played in June in the West Indies and USA, Rohit Sharma will be leading the side with hopes of ending India's ICC trophy drought.