'These are phases that come and go': Hardik Pandya opens up about tough times ahead of T20 World Cup

Hardik Pandya has finally opened up on the last few months which have been “tough” for the Indian all-rounder. Pandya, who was appointed Mumbai Indians captain ahead of IPL 2024, had to face the wrath of MI fans as they were unhappy with Rohit Sharma’s removal. The constant criticism led to a below-par performance by Pandya in the IPL as his team also struggled for results.

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Mumbai finished 10th in the IPL 2024 table while Pandya only scored 216 runs in 13 innings and took 11 wickets with an economy of 10.75.

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Pandya, however, is not among those who will give up a fight just because it’s tough. The India cricketer is confident he will soon “come out of it”.

“Eventually, I believe, you have to stay in the battle,” Hardik told Star Sports before India's warm-up against Bangladesh . “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.

Read: Major takeaways from India's win over Bangladesh

“At the same time these things happen; there are good times and bad times, these are phases that come and go. That is fine. I have gone through these phases many times and I will come out of it as well.”

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Elaborating further on how he will deal with the challenges, Pandya said that he needs to face them with his “chin up” and keep working hard.

“I don’t take my successes too seriously. Whatever I have done well, I have forgotten about them immediately and moved forward. Same with difficult times. I don’t run away from it. I face everything with [my] chin up,” he said.

“As they say, this too shall pass. 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.”