Hardik Pandya Reveals He Thought His Career Was Over After The Back Injury In 2018

Hardik Pandya has revealed that he thought his career was over after he suffered back injury for the first time during the 2018 edition of the Asia Cup.

Hardik recently engaged in a freewheeling conversation with Harsha Bhogle on CricBuzz where he opened up about the incident.

It was during the 2018 Asia Cup league-stage encounter against arch-rivals Pakistan when the Indian all-rounder first had his tryst with a back injury. Hardik was stretchered off the field and was out of action for almost 3 months.

“I genuinely thought that my career is over because I’d never seen anyone being stretchered off. I was knocked out for 10 minutes, after that the pain never went down,” Hadik Pandya said.

He added: “What happens to me is that my body goes into recovery mode straight away… Asia Cup was anyway going to be my last series before being rested but then the injury happened.”

Also Read: Hardik Pandya Heaps High Praise On Ricky Ponting; Says The Former MI Coach Treated Him Like A Child

Hardik Pandya played the 2019 World Cup with a back injury

The back injury once again surfaced during the 2019 World Cup and even though he completed the tournament, it was clear that something needed to be done.

Hardik last played an international game against South Africa last September, post which he underwent surgery and intense rehabilitation, thus ruling him out for the rest of the 2019-20 season.

Hardik also opened up about the controversy that ensued in early January 2019 after his outrageous comments on a chat show led to him and KL Rahul getting suspender.

The all-rounder said that he has become wiser after the incident and even though he has moved on he still regrets the mental trauma that his family had to go through during that period.