Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya has remained mum on issues that have kept him in the spotlight in recent times, barring his fitness in Mumbai on Saturday, his impassive countenance masking his feelings as he faces a myriad of challenges on and off the field. For a player who has been a hot topic of discussion with everything that has been going on lately, Pandya flashed a pleasant smile and spoke at length about fitness as he launched his sportswear brand.
Two days ago, Pandya and Natasa Stankovic officially announced their split after four years of marriage and just before that, he lost out to Suryakumar Yadav in the race to become the captain of the Indian T20 team for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
On Saturday, however, it was all about fitness for him.
“When our body doesn’t 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 will tell my body to just push because you will always have an extra strain on your body,” said Pandya .
“The difference between if you score 20 and if I score 20, we’re on the same level. But if I get to 25 and challenge my mindset, next time I’ll be 25, next time I’ll be 30,” she added.
Ironically, his chances of becoming captain diminished due to fitness concerns due to which he was not able to play all three formats of the game and bowl extensively in the limited overs game, especially in ODIs.
Earlier this month, Pandya rejoiced with the T20 World Cup-winning team in an open-top bus, soaking up the love that thousands of fans showered on him during India’s victory parade.
But a few weeks since his peak, Pandya has become a man who has also lost some significant things.
Indian T20 World Cup vice-captain Pandya was seen as someone who would take Rohit Sharma’s place, but the news of his removal from the top role almost coincided with the announcement of his divorce.
But Pandya showed no impact from all this as he made his first public appearance to launch his sportswear brand with Fancode here, sharing insights into his fitness even though talk in Indian cricket circles continues about him being injury-prone.
Just a few months ago, Pandya was the target of fans’ ire for replacing Rohit as captain of Mumbai Indians, but he didn’t react until he himself changed the situation.
The opportunity arrived with Pandya playing a stellar role in India’s World Cup victory and it was then that he recognized that things had been really difficult.
“The point is that it’s very, very important to clear your mind too, that your body has a lot more to it than you might think and that video (he watched it when he was 16) has stayed with me for so long that, every time in my life , when my trainer tells me to do 10 push-ups, I always end up doing 15,” the 30-year-old shared.
“And this pushed my limits and I think slowly, everyone who wants to start a fitness journey should focus on this,” Pandya said, adding that his highest Yo-Yo test score was 21.7, just a few points. less than the upper limit.
“Start pushing your barrier every day because the human body is such a lovely creation of God that it will shape itself however you want, however you want, it just needs a little hard work,” Pandya said.
He may not be new coach Gautam Gambhir’s choice for captaincy, but he has been described as the “only player in the country to do what he can” by chief selector Ajit Agarkar.
Pandya shared insights into what motivates him.
“I never knew what physical conditioning would do to me, but I felt like I always wanted to be number 1 in everything I did, so, out of habit, I continued to train a lot when I was young, I tried a lot, I ran a lot, so I had a very good and strong foundation,” he said.
“Obviously there wasn’t a lot of knowledge about the body, there wasn’t a lot of knowledge about how to increase my fitness, but because my base was strong and I did the basics that you should do when training, that helped me when I got to the Top Level.” “I used to play 130s, if I’m not wrong; above 130s, I managed to go 140 plus, 142 pushing, that’s when I realized in 2017 or not, as soon as I started to get more into my body, more knowledge about it and that’s when I start to push”, he said.
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