Badminton Session Freed Him, He Realised He Is Born To Play, Not Do Chat Shows - Hardik Pandya's Coach
Gujarat Titans (GT) captain, Hardik Pandya, led his team to an IPL trophy in their debut season on Sunday after crushing Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the grand final at the Narendra Modi stadium.
Hardik led from the front with a brilliant all-round performance where he had figures of 3/17 in four overs and also scored a 31-ball 34 during the run chase.
He was extremely focused on his job and dedicated himself to the team after being dropped from the Indian team. More importantly, his coach, Jitender Singh revealed how the 27-year-old all-rounder from Baroda turned it around after the controversy on the ‘Koffee with Karan’ chat show.
“He hadn’t slept the whole night, na?.” the coach asked another person in the room. “Tension nahin lena hai (Don’t take tension). You will get back to playing for India very soon. Jo ho gaya, voh ho gaya (what’s done is done), no use worrying about it. Come tomorrow to Reliance stadium. Now, smile.”
“I had booked a badminton court for us to play. Just to get the competitive juices and the joy of sport back in him. I wanted him to sweat out. It freed himself, usko ehsaas hua (he realised) that he is a sportsman and this is what he is born to do. Not chat shows,” Jitender said in a chat with Indian Express.
“Hardik Pandya’s father would have been so proud today” – Jitender Singh
Following the controversy surrounding the episode, Hardik decided it was time to recalibrate and reset. He called up his coach and assured him that there will never be another negative thing spoken about him.
“Coach, you will not hear any negative thing about me after this. He has held that word, his father would have been so proud today,” Jitender further mentioned.
Hardik was the top scorer for Gujarat with 487 runs in 15 matches and he also took 8 wickets at an economy under 7.5.
