The tournament will also feature Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer.
Hardik Pandya returned to competitive cricket for the first time since an ankle injury ruled him out of the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Pandya opened the bowling and took two wickets for 22 runs from his three overs for Reliance 1 in the DY Patil T20 Cup in Navi Mumbai on Monday afternoon. He then went on to bat at No 10 and, along with Piyush Chawla, saw off a tense chase. Pandya remained unbeaten on 3 off four balls as Reliance 1 defeated Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited by two wickets.
For the past two months, Pandya has been working on regaining full fitness. After resuming training in Baroda three weeks ago, he played in three practice T20s alongside Rishabh Pant, which were organised by the NCA in Alur last week. Pandya batted and bowled in all those matches and was subsequently cleared by the NCA to participate in the DY Patil tournament.
Pandya will return to the NCA in March for a final fitness assessment before joining Mumbai Indians' pre-season camp for IPL 2024, starting on March 22.
Pandya is set to replace Rohit Sharma as Mumbai captain after negotiations following the World Cup resulted in the biggest player swap in IPL history.
The DY Patil tournament will feature Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, in addition to Pandya.
Suryakumar Yadav, who underwent surgery for a sports hernia in Germany in January, will not participate in the tournament as previously expected.
The absence of Kishan and Iyer from the Ranji Trophy has raised concerns, despite the BCCI's directive to contracted players to prioritise domestic cricket over the IPL.
Kishan's last appearance for India was in December, and he requested to be released from the Test squad in South Africa due to personal reasons. He has not played any red-ball games since. Earlier this month, Kishan reportedly trained in Baroda with Pandya, his captain at Mumbai, ahead of the IPL season.
Iyer's case is also interesting. He was dropped from India's squad after scoring 27, 29, 35, and 13 in the first two Tests against England. According to an MCA selector, Iyer missed Mumbai's Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Baroda due to back spasms.
Although he had experienced back spasms after the second Test in Visakhapatnam, he was cleared for selection for the third Test. Assuming his fitness, Iyer will lead his IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders, after missing the previous season due to a back injury that required surgery.