Hardik Pandya’s Divorce Post Ignites Viral Meme Frenzy

Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s recent social media post announcing his separation from his wife, Natasa Stankovic, has ignited a viral meme storm on X. Netizens expressed their thoughts on the cricketer’s split from the Serbian dancer and model.

“After 4 years of being together, Natasa and I have decided to mutually part ways. We tried our best together and gave it our all, and we believe this is in the best interest for both of us. This was a tough decision for us to make, given the joy, mutual respect and companionship we enjoyed together as we grew a family,” Hardik Pandya wrote on his Instagram account.

“We are blessed with Agastya, who will continue to be at the center of both our lives and we will co-parent to ensure that we give him everything that we can for his happiness. We sincerely request your support and understanding to give us privacy during this difficult and sensitive time,” he added.

It is worth noting that speculation about Hardik Pandya’s relationship with Natasa Stankovic had been circulating for some time. This intensified when Natasa dropped the Pandya surname from her social media profile and removed all her pictures with Hardik from Instagram.

Additionally, Natasa had not been seen cheering for Hardik during international matches or IPL games, even during challenging periods in his career. For instance, she remained silent when Hardik faced online abuse and crowd booing during the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) after he was named the captain of the Mumbai Indians, replacing Rohit Sharma.

Natasa also notably did not share a message of support when Hardik suffered an injury during India’s ODI World Cup campaign at home last year.

This news adds to what has already been a difficult period for Hardik. Earlier this week, the national selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, removed him from the leadership positions of the Indian Cricket Team for the upcoming T20I series against Sri Lanka.

In a surprising move, veteran batter Suryakumar Yadav was named the captain of the T20I side, with Shubman Gill as his deputy, sidelining Hardik from the leadership role.

This decision did not sit well with former India batter Mohammad Kaif, who believes that Hardik had already demonstrated his leadership skills in the IPL and should have been the first choice to lead the national team in T20Is.

“Hardik has captained the Gujarat Titans for 2 years and in their first year itself, they made it to the final. Hardik has experience captaining the T20I side. He was also the vice-captain at the T20 World Cup. Now, a new coach has arrived, and there will be new planning. Surya is also a good player, he has been playing for years. He is a no.1 T20 player, and I hope he will shoulder the captain’s responsibility well. But, I feel they should have backed Hardik,” Mohammad Kaif told news agency IANS.

“Gambhir is an experienced captain and coach. He understands cricket very well. I think ‘Hardik ne aisa koi galat kaam nahi kia ki unko captaincy na mile’ (Hardik has not done anything wrong that he should not get the captaincy),” he elaborated.

“He has experience, has captained in the IPL, and leading a new team (Gujarat Titans) to trophy, with fresh and young faces, is a huge thing. He has made the Titans win by working from Ground Zero in the IPL. I think he was entitled to the captaincy. So let’s just wait and see,” Mohammad Kaif explained.

Meanwhile, Hardik opened up about his fitness this week, shortly after his publicized separation from Natasa and his removal from the T20I captaincy.

“I never knew what fitness would do to me, but it’s just that I felt it for me. I always wanted to be No. 1 in everything which I do, so in the habit of that, I kept training a lot when I was young, I pushed myself a lot, ran a lot so I had a very good strong base,” Hardik said during a launch event.

“Obviously, there was not much knowledge about the body and how to increase my fitness, but because my base was strong and I did the basics which you are supposed to do while training, it helped me when I came to the higher level. I used to bowl if I’m not wrong in the 130s; higher 130s, I was able to go 140 plus, 142 by pushing, that’s when I realized by 2017 or not as soon as I started getting more and more into my body, more knowledge about it and that’s when I start pushing,” he concluded.

India’s Squad for Sri Lanka T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.

Source: IANS