Hardik Pandya reveals fitness mantra amid personal and professional setbacks
Hardik Pandya Pic:X
Xtra Time Web Desk:India's all-rounder Hardik Pandya has shared his fitness mantra just days after announcing his separation from Natasa Stankovic and losing the T20I captaincy to Suryakumar Yadav. Despite these significant personal and professional challenges, Pandya remains composed and focused on his fitness journey.
Pandya and Natasa Stankovic officially announced their separation after four years of marriage. This news came shortly after Pandya lost out to Suryakumar Yadav in the race to captain the Indian T20 team for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. Despite these setbacks, Pandya chose to concentrate on fitness in his recent public appearance.
"When our body does not 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 would tell my body to just push because you will always have extra effort in your body," Pandya explained. "The difference between, if you do 20 and if I do 20, we are on the same level. But if I push to 25 and if I challenge my mindset, next time I'm going to do 25, next time I'm going to do 30."
Ironically, concerns around his fitness have impacted his chances of becoming the captain. His inability to play all three formats and bowl extensively in limited-overs cricket, especially in ODIs, has raised questions. Earlier this month, Pandya celebrated with the T20 World Cup-winning team during an open bus victory parade, soaking in the adoration of fans. However, in the weeks since that triumph, he has faced significant personal and professional losses.
Pandya was seen as a potential successor to Rohit Sharma, but the news of his removal from the leadership role coincided with his divorce announcement. Despite these events, Pandya maintained his composure during a brand launch with Fancode, focusing on his fitness journey and sharing his experiences.
Reflecting on his journey, Pandya shared his philosophy of pushing limits. "The point that it is very, very important to sometimes clean your mind as well, that your body has much more than what you can think and that video (he watched as a 16-year-old) stayed with me for so long that, every time in my life, when my trainer is telling me to do 10 push-ups, I've always ended up doing 15," the 30-year-old shared. "And that has pushed my limits and I think slowly, everyone who wants to start with a fitness journey they should focus on that," said Pandya, adding that his highest score in the Yo-Yo test has been 21.7, just shy of the upper limit.
"Start pushing your barrier every single day because the human body is such a lovely creation by God that it will mould however you want (it) to, however you want to have it, it's just that it just needs a little hard work," Pandya said. Although Pandya may not be new coach Gautam Gambhir's choice for captaincy, he was once described by chief selector Ajit Agarkar as the "only player in the country to do what he can do."
"I never knew what fitness would do for me, but it's just that I felt that, for me, I always wanted to be No. 1 in everything which I do, so in a habit of that, I kept training a lot when I was young, I pushed myself a lot, ran a lot so I had a very good strong base," he said. "Obviously, there was not much knowledge about the body, not much knowledge about how to increase my fitness, but because my base was strong and I did the basics which you are supposed to do while training, it helped me when I came to the higher level."
"I used to bowl if I'm not wrong 130s; higher 130s, I was able to go 140 plus, 142 by pushing, that's when I realized by 2017 or not as soon as I started getting more more into my body, more knowledge about it and that's when I started pushing," he concluded.
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