Before the T20 World Cup commenced, widespread speculation surrounded the personal life of Indian cricket star Hardik Pandya. Rumours circulated that Pandya and his wife, Natasa Stankovic, were facing marital issues and were possibly heading for a divorce. Despite these claims, neither Pandya nor Stankovic commented on the rumours.
Amidst this backdrop, Pandya has been performing exceptionally well in the T20 World Cup, taking several wickets, much to the relief of the Indian team management. During this period, Pandya had a brief interaction with Ricky Ponting, who is in the USA serving as an expert for the T20 World Cup. The International Cricket Council (ICC) uploaded a video of their meeting on YouTube. The conversation was as follows:
Hardik Pandya: “Ricky! How’s everything? How’s
Ricky Ponting: “They’re good mate. Very good! What about you?”
Hardik Pandya: “All good.”
Earlier signs suggested that everything might be fine between Pandya and Stankovic as she restored their wedding pictures on Instagram. The rumours initially started when a Reddit user noticed that Natasa had archived their wedding photos and did not attend any of the Mumbai Indians matches during the recently concluded IPL 2024.
However, when the pictures were reinstated on her Instagram, many users expressed relief and happiness at this development. In the meantime, India has progressed to the T20 World Cup Super 8 stage. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma acknowledged the challenges of playing on a two-paced newly-laid drop-in pitch at Nassau County ground.
Despite these difficulties, the team managed to secure wins in each of their three matches. India achieved the highest successful chase at the venue, scoring 111/3 in response to USA’s 110/8, with key performances from Arshdeep Singh (4/9), Suryakumar Yadav (50 not out), and Shivam Dube (31).
“We knew it would be tough. Credit to us for the way we held our nerve and got that partnership. Credit to Surya and Dube for showing the maturity and taking us through,” Rohit Sharma commented after the match.
Rohit appeared more relieved than elated that India had overcome the initial hurdle in the global tournament.
“Being in the Super Eight is a big relief — playing cricket here wasn’t easy (as) it could have been anyone’s game. We had to stick through till the end in all three games. We will take a lot of confidence from these wins,” he added.
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