Mumbai Indians are in no hurry to rush Hardik Pandya back into the playing XI although the all-rounder has been “trained well” and is close to playing, the franchise’s bowling coach Shane Bond said.

Pandya, who has bowled rarely ever since returning to action after a back surgery last year, missed his second successive IPL game in the UAE leg but Bond asserted that the Baroda player was training well and hopefully will make a mark in the business end of the tournament.

“Look, Hardik is training well… He is getting closer to playing. We are obviously balancing the needs of our team with the needs of Team India as well,” Bond said after Mumbai Indians’ seven-wicket defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.

“The one thing that this franchise does very well is look after its players with an eye on not only to try and win this competition, but also on the T20 World Cup that’s following on,” said the former New Zealand speedster.

“We are hopeful that Hardik will be back for the next match. As I said, he has trained and trained pretty well by all counts.”

Mumbai head coach Mahela Jayawardene had earlier said that Hardik was kept out of the IPL game against Chennai Super Kings as a precautionary measure as he had a little niggle.

“We are obviously desperate to put him back out on the field. But you have to balance everything, you have to also consider what the player wants,” Bond said.

“There’s also no point rushing him back to get injured to miss the rest of the tournament when we may have a chance to win it. I think we are doing the right thing and are hopeful (that) we will get him back shortly and he’ll have an impact on the back-end of the tournament and get us into the playoffs.”