Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya recently spoke publicly for the first time since announcing his divorce from Natasa Stankovic and losing the captaincy position to Suryakumar Yadav. Addressing the media, the Mumbai Indians captain emphasized the crucial role of fitness, urging everyone to continually push their limits. These past days have proven challenging for Pandya, both professionally and personally. Despite being a key player in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, he has faced setbacks, becoming a focal point of discussions.
Pandya, who served as vice-captain during the T20 World Cup and was seen as a potential long-term captain, was not chosen for the role. The decision by the BCCI and head coach Gautam Gambhir stemmed from concerns over his injury history and the need for effective workload management.
Following the appointment of Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain and the subsequent loss of his vice-captaincy, Hardik Pandya has also experienced significant developments in his personal life. He recently announced his divorce from Natasa Stankovic through a social media post, marking a pivotal moment in his private affairs.
Pandya emerged into the public eye once more on Saturday, July 20th, during the launch event of his sports apparel brand. Speaking to PTI, the all-rounder emphasized the importance of fitness, highlighting its integral role in his life.
“When our body does not get tired, our mind gets tired. So, so many times in my life, the difference between when I was able to push my limits was always the fact that when my mind gets tired, I would tell my body to just push because you will always have extra effort in your body. The difference between, if you do 20 and if I do 20, we are on the same level. But if I push to 25 and if I challenge my mindset, next time I’m going to do 25, next time I’m going to do 30,”
“The point that it is very, very important to sometimes clean your mind as well, that your body has much more than what you can think and that video (he watched as a 16-year-old) stayed with me for so long that, every time in my life, when my trainer is telling me to do 10 push-ups, I’ve always ended up doing 15. And that has pushed my limits and I think slowly, everyone who wants to start with a fitness journey should focus on that.”
“Start pushing your barrier every single day – Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya further stressed how pushing in fitness helped him to increase his pace. The all-rounder while elaborating on pushing through the limits stated:
“Start pushing your barrier every single day because the human body is such a lovely creation by god that it will mould however you want (it) to, however, you want to have it, it’s just that it just needs little hard work. I never knew what fitness would do to me, but it’s just that I felt that I always wanted to be No. 1 in everything I did, so in a habit, I kept training a lot when I was young, I pushed myself a lot, ran a lot so I had a very good strong base.
“There was not much knowledge about the body, not much knowledge about how to increase my fitness, but because my base was strong and I did the basics which you are supposed to do while training, it helped me when I came to the higher level. I used to bowl if I’m not wrong 130s; higher 130s, I was able to go 140 plus, 142 by pushing, that’s when I realised by 2017 or not as soon as I started getting more more into my body, more knowledge about it and that’s when I start pushing.” Hardik Pandya has been named in the Indian team for the T20I series against Sri Lanka. But he has been rested for the ODIs. The India tour to Sri Lanka will begin with a T20I series on 27th July.
