I went through a lot of mental pressure during rehabilitation: Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya, the prolific Indian all-rounder sustained a back injury during the T20I series against South Africa last year. He underwent surgery for the same and had to stay away from international cricket for about five to six months. However, he is back in Team India now for the ODI series against South Africa. It might have been a tough time for the 26-year-old and the man himself admitted that it was mentally very frustrating to sit out of the team for so long.

Pandya is currently one of the best all-rounders across the country. Moreover, he is expected to play a vital role in the upcoming T20 World Cup that is slated to be held in Australia. After the surgery, there were rife speculations that he might return to the national team ahead of their important tour to New Zealand but that never happened as it took more time for Hardik to recover from the surgery.

But, now Hardik, who has marked a strong arrival in competitive cricket with some smashing performances in a local T20 tournament scoring 347 runs in five games at a strike rate of 232.89, is up and running.

Hardik Pandya says it was difficult for him to recover from the injury

Hardik Pandya has talked about the tough time he had while recovering from his injury. The all-rounder said that he missed his team and fans in the last six months. Pandya also added the fact that he tried his level best to recover soon but that didn’t work out for him due to which he had to go through a lot of mental stress.

“I missed this atmosphere the most in these last six months, playing for the country and the feeling you get wearing the team’s colours. That had become a mental challenge and there were a lot of setbacks. I was trying to get back to full fitness quickly but that did not work out and a lot of mental pressure came at the time,” he was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express.

Hardik Pandya also went on to say that it was important for him to perform well in DY Patil T20 tournament to get back into the grooves and make a comeback into the national side. It doesn’t matter how much a player practices in nets but the match situations are far different from it.

“But touchwood, everything went fine, the rehabilitation went well and a lot of people helped me. It was important. I had not played anything for six and a half months. I wanted to make an international comeback so it was very important for my confidence. No matter how much you practice, the match situation is always different,” he added.

Speaking about his whirlwind knock of 158 runs off just 55 balls with 20 sixes, Hardik Pandya revealed that with every hit, his confidence increased and never thought he would hit those many maximums. “So I just kept on playing, my confidence kept improving and the sixes were coming off well. I thought if they are coming off well, why should I stop and I kept going. But I never thought that I want to hit 20 sixes in an innings,” the star all-rounder concluded.