Cricket News: Hardik Pandya made a strong comeback to cricket, culminating in his captaincy of the elusive Indian Premier League (IPL) title. Before the start of the 2022 season, there was little talk about his captaincy, the Gujarat Titans were predicted to perform poorly, and detractors questioned his availability as an all-rounder in the competition. Hardik, on the other hand, astounded everyone by checking all the boxes, as he has done throughout his career. And, as he basks in the pleasure of his first IPL victory as captain, his boyhood coach reflected on the most trying era of his career.
Hardik found himself in the middle of a storm in 2019 after making sexist and ‘racist’ comments on a ‘Koffee With Karan’ episode. Due to a BCCI suspension, he was ruled out of the ODI series in Australia and was sent home.
Jitender Singh, Hardik’s boyhood coach, described a tense Hardik sitting on the floor at his home the next morning in an interview with Indian Express.
“He hadn’t slept the whole night, na?,” the coach asked another person in the room. “Tension nahin lena hai (Don’t take tension). You will get back to playing for India very soon. Jo ho gaya, voh ho gaya (what’s done is done), no use worrying about it. Come tomorrow to Reliance stadium. Now, smile.”
“I had booked a badminton court for us to play. Just to get the competitive juices and the joy of sport back in him. I wanted him to sweat out. It freed himself, usko ehsaas hua (he realised) that he is a sportsman and this is what he is born to do. Not chat shows.”
Three years later, Hardik made a huge statement with his all-around excellence and outstanding captaincy, which helped Gujarat Titans win the IPL trophy in their first season.
Jitender later recalled Hardik’s statements to him after the controversy and stated that he had followed through on them.
“Coach, you will not hear any negative thing about me after this,” Jitender recalled Hardik’s words. “He has held that word, his father would have been so proud today.”
