“They are coming in a car but cannot afford a cricket kit”: Hardik Pandya once recalled how people used to question their hardships because of a car

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya is one of the most flamboyant cricketers around, and he is one of the most important cricketers on the Indian cricket team at the moment. After his comeback in IPL 2022, Pandya is flying high in his career, and he is the vice-captain of the Indian team in the white-ball formats.

Under the captaincy of Pandya, the Indian team has done really well in the T20I format. The captaincy skills of Pandya were proved when he led Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 title. Pandya is one of the biggest names in cricket at the moment, but he struggled a lot during his childhood.

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Pandya’s father switches cities from Surat to Baroda in order to give the best cricketing facilities to his children. Pandya left his education just after 9th standard to focus on cricket. However, he said that he won’t advise young children to sacrifice their studies for sports.

Hardik Pandya once recalled how people used to question their hardships

Hardik Pandya once appeared on the ‘What the Duck’ show in 2017, where he shared an emotional story about his hardship. He revealed that they bought a car without savings as they had to travel to different places to play their matches, but they had no money to even pay the EMI of the car.

Pandya insisted that they had to borrow kits from the Baroda Cricket Association, but people used to doubt their hardship as they were owning a car without knowing their actual conditions. He revealed that his father’s heart condition was a major threat to the family and most of the money was used to go into his treatment and give EMI of the car.

“A lot of people are not aware of this. We had bought a car but there were no savings. Wherever Krunal and I would go to play matches, we would go in the car. We had to take a cricket kit from Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) for one year. I was 17 and Krunal was, I guess, around 19. A lot of people questioned, ‘they are coming in a car but cannot afford a cricket kit?’,” Pandya had said.

Pandya gave a figure that they earned around INR 40,000 per month, and INR 10,000 was the car’s EMI. In another interview, he revealed how he used his IPL salary to pay all the EMIs of his car.