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Hardik Pandya: Biography| Cricket journey| IPL| Personal Life
Hard work and dedication are some of the few words to describe Hardik Pandya’s cricket journey. A middle-class family’s youngest son has achieved his childhood dream of playing for the Indian cricket team and is so far leading the Indian cricket T20I team as a captain. Who would have thought that a normal guy who was just saving money somehow to reach his practice ground would make it this far in life? Truly, he is the epitome of the quote, “Believe in yourself.” Let’s dive deep into this right-handed batter’s cricket career to know how he achieved the height of success.
Childhood and Life Before Cricket
Hardik Himanshu Pandya was born on the 11th of October 1993 in Surat, Gujarat, but later his family moved to Vadodara as his father shut down his car finance business and started working as a loan agent in Vadodara. Hardik was 5 years old back then. His father (the late Himanshu Pandya) enrolled both of his sons, an elder brother and a younger brother, in Kiran More’s Cricket Academy, where they both started enhancing their cricketing skills.
When both brothers started playing cricket, they were living in a rented apartment, and sometimes both of them had to spend their entire day just eating Maggi (instant noodles). That’s how they got the title Maggi bothers, and their coach, Kiran More, after seeing their talent, didn’t take any fees from them and let them have free training under his guidance.
The Domestic and International Career of Hardik Pandya:
When he was 20 years old he started playing from Baroda Cricket team and helped his team winning the Mushtaq Ali trophy of 2013-14, continuing his aggressive form in 2016 he played a pivotal role in guiding his team to another Mushtaq Ali trophy win.
Read More: MS Dhoni Cricket career
IPL:
Before playing any international matches, he was picked up by the Mumbai Indians (a cricket franchise of the IPL) in the 2015 auction, and in that season, he scored some crucial knocks for his team, helping it reach the finals of that year and win the IPL trophy.
In the year 2022, he became captain of the Gujarat Titans, a new cricket franchise in the IPL, after the Mumbai Indians released him, and in the very first season where he was playing as a captain, he sailed through all the challenges and guided his team to its maiden IPL trophy win. As of now, Hardik Pandya is still the captain of the Gujarat Titans team in the IPL season 2023.
Limited Overs Career:
Hardik Pandya made his T20I debut in 2016 against Australia. There he showed his bowling skills and picked up the wicket of Chris Lynn as his first international wicket. Later on, he played in the Asia Cup 2016 and made a significant impact on the masses through his bowling and batting capabilities.
Hardik played his first ODI match in the year 2016 against New Zealand, and he was part of the Indian cricket team in the 2017 Champions Trophy finals and left people in awe when he played a remarkable knock of 76 runs in just 43 balls against Pakistan. India lost the match, but from that innings he became a household name.
Test cricket career
Hardik had his international test cricket debut in the year 2016 against England, but unfortunately, he injured himself while practicing in the nets and was left out of the team. He got selected for India’s tour of Sri Lanka in 2017, and in this series, he hit his first test cricket century in the third test match, which was also his first international century.
Some of the achievements of Hardik Pandya:
Hardik Pandya, in his career so far, has achieved some milestones, and here are a few of them:
- Hardik Pandya’ is the first Indian cricketer to take four wickets and score more than 30 runs in a T20I in the same match.
- Hardik Pandya has the record for becoming the first Indian batsman to score a Test century just before lunch in a test match.
- He became the 4th Indian cricketer to get player of the match in his debut ODI match.
Hardik Pandya’s IPL and international cricket stats so far:
| Format | Batting Average | Bowling Average |
| T20I | 25.42 | 26.43 |
| ODI | 33.0 | 37.65 |
| Test | 31.29 | 31.06 |
| IPL | 29.49 | 31.62 |
Hardik Pandya’s Social and Personal Life:
— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) April 8, 2023
In social media, Hardik is quite active and shares some glimpses of his everyday life with his fans. He got married to Natasha Stankovic on May 31st, 2020, and in the same year the couple got blessed with a baby boy named “Agastya Pandya”. In 2019, after making some derogatory remarks on women in a TV show called “Koffee with Karan”, he was caught in controversy, and he and his showmate K L Rahul got suspended, but after an investigation, the BCCI called them back. His elder brother, Krunal Pandya, also plays cricket and has played some matches representing India in international formats.
