'There was a lot of sacrifice': Hardik Pandya recalls training hard during six months away from Team India

All-rounder Hardik Pandya recently made his comeback to the Indian team on the back of a title-winning IPL 2022 campaign with Gujarat Titans (GT), where he scored 487 runs and took eight wickets. Hardik played a pivotal role in the first T20I between India and South Africa in Delhi on Thursday, guiding his team to 211 with a 12-ball 31. However, the Men in Blue would then go onto lose the match by seven wickets, courtesy heroics from David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen. Before the first T20I against the Proteas, Hardik last played an international game at the T20 World Cup in November against Namibia. Hardik has previously suffered back injuries, a surgery for which he had undergone in 2019 after the ODI World Cup in England. Much was talked as far as his fitness was concerned, especially his bowling, but Hardik proved his critics wrong with fine performances in the IPL. In a video tweeted by the BCCI’s official Twitter handle, Hardik went onto recall his IPL 2022 triumph with GT. “I was happy. It was more about the battles I won against my own self and a lot of other things as well. Winning the IPL, or even qualifying (for playoffs) was a big deal for me because a lot of people doubted us. A lot of people frowned at us before we started. A lot of people raised a lot of questions. A lot of things were said about me even before I made a comeback,” Hardik said.

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The 28-year-old further went onto add that he had made ‘lot of sacrifices’, including waking up at 5 am for training, during the six months he was absent from the Indian team. “It was never about giving them answers. I’m just proud of the process I followed. No one knows what I went through the six months that I was off. I’ve gotten up at 5 in morning to make sure I train. I slept at 9:30 in the night for fourth months, so (there was) a lot of sacrifice. It was the battle I fought before the IPL. I have always worked hard in my life, and it has always given me the result I wanted,” the Baroda cricketer added. Meanwhile, India have rested the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah while KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav are out of the South Africa series due to injuries. Rishabh Pant is leading the side in Rahul’s absence. The T20I series caravan now moves to Cuttack for the second of five matches, where India will look to turn things around on Sunday after suffering a seven-wicket defeat in the first game.