Team India vice-captain and all-rounder Hardik Pandya joined India squad in New York for the T20 World Cup 2024, slated to take place in the West Indies and the USA on June 2.
The first batch of India squad landed in the city of New York for the prestigious tournament. However, Hardik Pandya was not part of the group that departed from Mumbai Airport for the USA. The Mumbai Indians skipper was reportedly in London amid rumours of his divorce with his wife Natasa Stankovic.
Hardik, alongside Sanju Samson and Virat Kohli, had been granted permission from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to join the squad later. Now, the star all-rounder has finally joined the India squad and began the training session with his teammates ahead of the warm-up match against Bangladesh.
Hardik Pandya took his X handle (formerly Twitter) and shared few pictures from the team's training session in New York, with a tweet, "On national duty."
Hardik Pandya has been in the news of late for all the wrong reasons due to rumours of his divorce with his wife Natasa Stankovic. The viral Reddit post suggested that the couple had been separated and Natasa removed 'Pandya' surname from her Instagram. The user further added that Serbian model didn't attend any of the Mumbai Indians' matches and removed all of her pictures with the all-rounder from her Instagram handle.
However, on contrary to the claims by the Reddit user, Natasa hasn't deleted any of her pictures with on her Instagram and even attended few MI matches by keeping low profile due to criticism and backlash received by Pandya from the fans for replacing Rohit Sharma as a skipper.
Though speculations have been spreading like wildfire over the last one week, Neither Hardik Pandya nor Natasa commented anything about the matter.
Hardik Pandya hopes to find form in T20 World Cup
Hardik Pandya had an unsuccessful campaign as Mumbai Indians skipper in the recently concluded IPL 2024. The five-time IPL champions failed to qualify for the playoffs after finishing at the bottom of the points table with four wins in their 14 outings and accumulated just eight points.
The all-rounder had a lacklustre season as he scored 216 runs at an average of 18 and a strike rate of 143.05 in 14 matches. with the ball, Pandya picked 11 wickets at an average of 35.18 and an economy rate of 10.75.
Hardik Pandya will look to put behind his poor IPL season by coming up with goods in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024. Pandya has been one of the go-to players for Team India in major tournaments. In the last edition of the T20 World Cup, Pandya scored 128 runs, including a fifty, at an average of 25.06 and picked 8 wickets in six matches.
Team India will begin their campaign against Ireland at the newly built Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on June 1.
