Apart from the Pathan brothers in Irfan and Yusuf, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya are the two cricketers from Baroda to have made their mark in the IPL, and even went on to represent the country at the international level.
Advertisement
While Krunal has not yet made a lasting impact and presently finds himself out of the scheme of things as far as his spot in the Indian team is concerned, Hardik has emerged to be the vital cog in the Indian batting wheel, with his pace bowling ability adding to the balance of the team in the limited Overs format.
However, Hardik’s journey towards realizing his dream has been far from being a bed of roses, although a mere glance at his Instagram page and learning about his lavish lifestyle would make one feel like we’re romanticizing his struggle way too much. That’s the thing with social media!
The hardships had begun during his teenage days, when they (Hardik and Krunal) had to take the responsibility to provide for the family, with their father no longer fit enough to work after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Hardik Pandya was once dropped from Baroda U-17 team because of his attitude problem
If off-the-field financial issues were not enough, Hardik had to face some tough times and hardships while playing the sport he used to love the most – the one which provided him with the little financial assistance to make ends meet.
Surprisingly, the Indian allrounder had to pay the price for not being in ideal terms with his Baroda team coach, and resultantly had to allegedly pay the price by getting axed from the under-17 team for a bizarre reason – ‘Attitude problem’, despite having proven his mettle with the bat.
“I still remember I had a situation in which I was dropped from the U-17 team because of the things which I had with my coach. It was very hilarious. I still remember someone telling my brother that I had an attitude problem. At the age of 16, I did not even know what attitude was. It was very funny that someone told me that I had attitude, ” remarked Hardik during India Today Inspiration’s 7th episode around three years ago.
“I just stopped talking to people” – Hardik
Despite scoring as many as 800 runs that year, his exclusion from the squad was a hard pill to swallow for Hardik, especially taking into consideration his age as well.
However, with a determination to achieve his dream not matter what, he decided to have his head down and put in the hard yards, while making the sport his life for the next three years (age 17-19).
“I was just crying throughout because of my situation, my papa’s situation. For 2-3 years, it was a lot for me to take it. I just went for the next three years between 17 and 19, I completely gave it to cricket. I just stopped talking to people. I was having just cricket friends, no one from the outside circle. Neither a girl or a guy or anyone. I was just cut-off from the world because I felt it might just distract me from my goal,” he further stated.
