Hardik Pandya pays heartfelt tribute to late father ahead first T20I game

Ahead of returning to action for India, star all-rounder Hardik Pandya has posted a touching message for his father Himanshu Pandya who passed away in January this year after suffering a cardiac arrest. Pandya has been finding it hard to deal with the big loss. Ever since losing his father, Pandya has posted several touching messages for him on the social media platforms.

Time and again, Pandya has opened up on how his father struggled to ensure that he and his brother Krunal realise their dream of playing cricket. Pandya’s family had a tough time financially before he and his brother made it big in the game. Himanshu had a small car finance business in Surat before he shut it down and moved to Vadodara to facilitate his sons with better cricket facilities.

He got them enrolled in Kiran More’s Cricket Academy there. And whole his struggle continued, his sons made sure to work hard. The hard work eventually paid off as both the brothers earned lucrative IPL contracts before going on to play for India. Perhaps this is why Pandya has decided to dedicate each of his achievement in the game to his dad.

On Friday, Pandya took to Instagram just a couple of hours before the first T20I against England to post the message in the story. He posted a picture of his father standing with the Indian tri-colour and wrote: “From today all for you dad. Miss you.”

Here is the message posted by Hardik Pandya in his Instagram story:

Hardik Pandya eyes impressive return to action:

Hardik Pandya will be looking to hit the ground running when he takes the field against England on Friday. The all-rounder has not played a competitive game since the limited-overs series in Australia. Pandya was a part of the Test team for the just-concluded series against England but did not play any game. The fast-bowling all-rounder was in stunning form in Australia where he scored two fifties in the ODI series before delivering a Man of the Series effort in the subsequent T20I series.