If there is a story written on comeback, then no one would be better than Hardik Pandya, who has made an outstanding return to the Indian team after suffering from injury. Pandya was being trolled and criticised for his performance a few weeks back in the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League and has now become one of the match-winners for the Indian Team. But do you know this is not the first time Hardik Pandya has silenced the haters he has been doing so for a long time in his cricket career.

Hardik Pandya was born on October 11, 1993 in Surat, India. Pandya’s father used to run a small car finance business in Surat before being shut down and he moved to Vadodara to provide his sons with better cricket training facilities. After moving to Vadodara, he started working as a loan agent. Himanshu enrolled Hardik and his brother Kunal into Kiran More's cricket academy. Due to a lack of facilities, Pandya’s family used to live in rented apartments in Gorwa. 

Pandya got engaged to dancer and actress Nataša Stanković on 1 January, 2020, on 30 July 2020 their first child, a boy, Agastya Pandya, was born. However, before getting married, he was linked to different actresses as his girlfriends.

Hardik was passionate about playing cricket due to which he studied until ninth grade before dropping out to focus on cricket, which made him one of the biggest all-rounders in the cricketing world. According to Krunal, Hardik made steady progress in junior-level cricket, where he won several matches single-handedly in club cricket. Despite having impeccable skills, the Indian all-rounder was dropped from his state age-group teams due to his attitude problems, which he said during an interview with the Indian Express. Not only that, according to Hardik Pandya’s father was a leg spinner until the age of 18 and turned to fast bowling at the insistence of the Baroda coach Sanath Kumar.

Domestic Career

Pandya has been representing the Baroda cricket team since 2013. He played a vital role in helping Baroda win the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the 2013–14 season. In January 2016, he played an incredible knock for Baroda Cricket team, where he hammered 86 not-out, hitting eight sixes, helping his team to a six-wicket win over Vidarbha cricket team for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

International Career

After performing well in domestic cricket, the Indian all-rounder made his debut for India on 27 January 2016 at the age of 22, picking up 2 wickets against Australia.  In Asia Cup 2016, Pandya played a cameo of 18-ball 31 helping India post a respectable score against Bangladesh. Later on, he also picked up a wicket to secure the win. Not only that, in the next match against arch-rivals Pakistan he bowled his best figures of 3 for 8m, which restricted Pakistan to 83. But one of the best spells came against Bangladesh in the 2016 ICC Men's T20 World Cup match on 23 March, where Pandya took two crucial wickets in the last three balls of the match's final over as India beat Bangladesh by one run.

Pandya’s career-best bowling figures of 4 for 38 came in the 3rd and final Twenty20 International against England on 8 July 2018, he got 33 Not Out in 14 balls, hitting the winning runs with a six off Jordan. After this match-winning knock, Hardik became first Indian to take 4 wickets and score above 30 runs in a T20I in the same match.

Hardik faced a lot of criticism from the Indian fans after he failed to perform in the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, where he scored just 11 runs in the match against arch-rivals that India lost by 10 wickets. In this marquee event, Pandya was picked as an all-rounder. However, he only bowled 2 overs against New Zealand without picking any wickets and giving away 17 runs due to which he was dropped from the squad for the T20I series that followed the World Cup against New Zealand.

After a wait of one year, the star all-rounder was named India's captain for their T20I matches against Ireland. On July 7, 2022, Pandya achieved his first T20 international half-century against England at The Rose Bowl ground in Southampton, scoring 51 runs on 33 balls. Pandya also took 4 wickets, making him the first Indian player to record a half-century and take 4 wickets in a single T20 international match.

ODI career

After making his T20I debut on 27 January 2016 at the age of 22, picking up 2 wickets against Australia. Pandya made his One Day International (ODI) debut for India against New Zealand on 16 October 2016 at Dharamshala. He became the fourth Indian to be named player of the match on ODI debut after Sandeep Patil, Mohit Sharma and K.L.Rahul.

In the group stages of ICC Champions Trophy, Pandya hit three consecutive sixes off Imad Wasim in the same over before rain stopped play before playing a knock of 76 in a losing cause, after coming to the crease when the Indian team were 54/5 following a top-order collapse against arch-rivals Pakistan in the final of the Champions Trophy at the Oval. Later, On 17 July 2022, Pandya bowled his ODI career-best 4–24 against England in Old Trafford, where he scored 71 runs during the 2nd innings of the same match making him the first Indian player to score a half-century and taking 4 wickets in an ODI since Yuvraj Singh in 2011

Test Career

After being included in India's Test squad for their home series against England in late 2016, he was eventually left out after he injured himself while training in the nets at the PCA Stadium. However, he was named in the squad that toured Sri Lanka in July 2017 and played his first Test on 26 July in Galle, where in the 3rd and final Test match against Sri Lanka at Pallekele, Pandya scored his maiden Test century, and set the record for becoming the first Indian batsman to score a Test century just before lunch. He also set the record for scoring the most runs in a single over of a Test innings for India, scoring 26 runs, which was later surpassed by Jasprit Bumrah scoring 26 runs which was later surpassed by Jasprit Bumrah.