Hardik Pandya, who is the only renowned pace-bowling all-rounder in the Indian cricket team, saw his participation in the ODI World Cup 2023 abruptly cut short because of an ankle injury that sidelined him for most of the tournament. Despite being asked for a rehabilitation period of 25 days by the BCCI medical team, Hardik wanted to return to Team India within just 5 days, which worsened his injury in the process.
Hardik Pandya Revealed Details Of His World Cup 2023 Injury
However, Hardik Pandya has fully recovered from his injury and is now all set to make a comeback in the upcoming 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League. Hardik will be seen leading Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024. Meanwhile, ahead of the IPL 2024, Hardik Pandya shared the ordeal of his injury, that he suffered during the World Cup, which kept him away from action for several months. In a conversation with Star Sports, Hardik said:
“I am such a kind of cricketer who doesn’t start 2-3 months before, I start my journey 1 year back for this World Cup, I already planned my routine 1 and half years before and worked accordingly. This was a freak injury very few people know about it my injury got extended and I had to take more time because when I got injured then it was 25 days rehab injury. I was missing the World Cup but I pushed because I had to come back and when I came out I informed team that I will be back in 5 days.”
He added: “I got injections done on my ankles at three different places and I had to remove blood from my ankle because it swollen was that much,”
Furthermore, Hardik Pandya revealed how he pushed himself to the brink, aiming to make himself available for the national team, especially with the team maintaining an unbeaten streak until the World Cup final. However, his injury resurfaced, restricting him to stay off the field for the next three months as well.
“In a way, I didn’t want to give up and for the team I will give my best. At one point in time, I was aware that if I kept pushing myself I might get injured for a long time. For me that was never the answer I was like if there was one percent chance I could be with the team I would try my best and while I was pushing myself, I had this re-occurrence and my injury became a three-month injury because as I was pushing I was not able to walk but I was trying to run that point of time,”
Missing World Cup Is The Biggest Regret For Hardik
Pandya wanted to lift the World Cup trophy with his team, however, he couldn’t regain full fitness to make a comeback in the showpiece event. He expressed that missing the World Cup is a regret that will always have. He said:
“I tried to push myself for 10 days, took painkillers and tried to make sure of a comeback as to how can I rejoin the team. For me, the biggest pride is to play for the country and there is never been a bigger pride than playing for the country. This was my baby playing World Cup at home is my child so I wanted to be there for them, nonetheless we win or not, all I wanted to be there for my child and obviously I missed out and that is something that is always going to heavy on my heart,”
Watch video here:
Hardik Pandya speaks first time on missing World Cup 2023.
"Missing WC will always going to be heavy on my heart"Credits: Star Sports & BCCI#IPL2024 pic.twitter.com/q9zt3oVN8x
— Rohan Gangta (@rohan_gangta) March 17, 2024
