Hardik Pandya will soon be at the centre of attraction when the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 starts. He will be leading the Mumbai Indians after replacing Rohit Sharma as captain. Pandya has not played international cricket for India since suffering an ankle injury during India’s ICC Cricket World Cup group stage match against Bangladesh in October last year. He missed out on the series of five T20Is against Australia at home, the tour to South Africa as well.
Ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season, last November Pandya was traded to Mumbai Indians (MI) from the Gujarat Titans (GT), replacing their five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy-winning MI skipper Rohit Sharma in the 2024 season of the cash-rich league.
Ahead of the IPL, Hardik Pandya has opened up on many unknown facets about him.
“One thing my fans don’t know about me is that I don’t go out. I am a home boy. I have hardly been out in the last three to four years; the only occasions I have stepped out is when it has been unavoidable, something happened with my friends. I like to stay at home. There was this time when I did not step out of home for 50 days. I did not even see the home lift,” he said on a chat show with the UK 07 rider.”I have my home gym, home theatre. The things that I like are in my home.”
Hardik Pandya was asked about one of his photos in a super car that went viral on social media. Pandya revealed somebody sent him the car for test-drive. Then he went on to say: “Main kabhi media mein comment karta nahi hu, to maine kabhi kia nahi, na mereko fadak padta hai (I don’t comment in media, I have never done it, it does not bother me),” Hardik Pandya said.
He also revealed a funny incident when he thought the prize money from a ‘Man of the Match’ trophy goes only to the player who won it.
“I thought a player who is awarded as man of the match receives all the money. So when I won the MOM, I thought that the money was for me, but then I learnt that it gets divided among the team. After all, it is a team sport,” he laughed.
