Arguably the only renowned pace-bowling all-rounder in the Indian team, Hardik Pandya saw his ODI World Cup 2023 participation cut short after an ankle injury saw him sidelined for the most part of the campaign. Though Hardik was informed of a 25-day rehabilitation period, he tried to push himself for a comeback within 5 days and ended up worsening his injury. The all-rounder, now fit for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 campaign with the Mumbai Indians, shared the horror-tale of his World Cup injury that forced him off the field for months.

“I am such a kind of cricketer who doesn’t start 2-3 months before, I start my journey 1 year back for this World Cup, I already planned my routine 1 and half years before and worked accordingly. This was a freak injury very few people know about it my injury got extended and I had to take more time because when I got injured then it was 25 days rehab injury. I was missing the World Cup but I pushed because I had to come back and when I came out I informed team that I will be back in 5 days.

“I got injections done on my ankles at three different places and I had to remove blood from my ankle because it swollen was that much,” Hardik said in a chat with Star Sports.

Hardik pushed himself to the limit, hoping to be available for the team as Rohit Sharma and Co. remained unbeaten until the final of the World Cup. But, his injury re-occurred and forced him off the field for the next three months.

“In a way, I didn’t want to give up and for the team I will give my best. At one point in time, I was aware that if I kept pushing myself I might get injured for a long time. For me that was never the answer I was like if there was one percent chance I could be with the team I would try my best and while I was pushing myself, I had this re-occurrence and my injury became a three-month injury because as I was pushing I was not able to walk but I was trying to run that point of time,” he said.

Hardik, who has always dreamed of winning the World Cup for his team, couldn’t regain full fitness to make a comeback in the showpiece event, and that is a regret he’ll always have.

“I tried to push myself for 10 days, took painkillers and tried to make sure of a comeback as to how can I rejoin the team. For me, the biggest pride is to play for the country and there is never been a bigger pride than playing for the country. This was my baby playing World Cup at home is my child so I wanted to be there for them, nonetheless we win or not, all I wanted to be there for my child and obviously I missed out and that is something that is always going to heavy on my heart,” he said.