Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya has opened up on his difficult phase. Pandya returned to action in the IPL after he last played in the ODI World Cup 2023. The seam-bowling all-rounder suffered an ankle injury against Bangladesh, that kept him out of action for almost six months.
Pandya took over the captaincy baton from Rohit Sharma for Mumbai Indians but he was booed by the Ahmedabad as well as the Mumbai crowd at the beginning of the IPL. The MI skipper scored 216 runs in 13 innings at an average of 18 and picked 11 wickets at a high economy rate of 10.75.
Thus, Pandya didn’t have a great run in the IPL but he will be determined to prove his mettle in the T20 World Cup.
“As they say, this too shall pass,” Pandya told Star Sports. “So coming out [of these phases] is simple: just play the sport, accept that [you need to] maybe get better at your skillset, keep working hard – hard work never goes to waste – and keep smiling.”
Pandya feels it was imperative for him to keep following his routines and he kept working hard on his game to move forward.
“I believe you have to stay in the battle. Sometimes life puts you in situations where things are tough, but I believe that if you leave the game or the field, the battle that is, you won’t get what you want from your sport, or the results you are looking for. So, yeah, it has been difficult, but at the same time, I have been process-driven, I have tried to follow the same routines I used to follow earlier,” he added.
Pandya said he tried to find motivation from his younger days when he rose through the ranks and hogged the limelight on the big stage by working hard.
“Hardik Pandya right now at 30 is a much, much easier job compared to what Hardik Pandya was when I was 16,” he said. “So I go back to the 16-year-old and I ask him how did you do it, why did you do it? At that point of time, I didn’t have facilities or opportunities. Hard work gave me opportunities and opened doors for me. So I am in that zone right now [where] I am going and asking the 16-year-old – because he is my actual motivator, because if that guy hadn’t set the platform I probably wouldn’t have been here.”
India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5th.
