India allrounder Hardik Pandya faced tough times in his career in 2019, after his appearance on a talk show 'Koffee with Karan' led to a wide media outburst. Some of Pandya's remarks on the show went viral on social media, and brought negative reactions from the public, leading to the cricketer being suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), along with KL Rahul.
Pandya missed a major portion of tours of Australia and New Zealand due to the suspension. In a recent interview with ESPNCricinfo's The Cricket Monthly magazine, Pandya recalled the time he heard about his suspension.
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Pandya said that he felt a lot of emotions because of how people were perceiving him as the 'bad boy of Indian cricket'.
"When I heard I was going to get suspended, a lot of cricketers who knew me personally, who knew what kind of an individual I am, they went out and spoke about it, which is fine. They thought I was done. I heard lots of people saying, 'Hardik's done, he won't be able to cope with this.' Because I was the bad boy of Indian cricket at that time," he said.
"At the Chinnaswamy [Bengaluru], while practising, I was missing the ball by this much (shows a wide gap). Because when this is not right (points to head) and when you question yourself, things just go wrong. That day I cried during training because there was a lot of emotion.
{{/usCountry}}"At the Chinnaswamy [Bengaluru], while practising, I was missing the ball by this much (shows a wide gap). Because when this is not right (points to head) and when you question yourself, things just go wrong. That day I cried during training because there was a lot of emotion.
{{/usCountry}}"Because of how I was portrayed [after the talk-show incident]. I was never that individual. I was not able to concentrate on my sport because there was a lot of expectation from myself, leave anyone else," he signed off.