After a rough couple of months, Hardik Pandya is back, and how? The India all-rounder has always reserved his best for the big tournaments, and that's exactly how the T20 World Cup is panning out for him. While he may not have gotten as many opportunities to bat, with the ball in hand, Hardik is proving deadly, accurate and impactful for India. In a swing of fortunes, with each match, Hardik is winning over the crowd and earning the tag 'clutch player' for India, a progress not many would have imagined until a month ago when he was at the receiving end of some severe hostility from fans of Mumbai Indians.

With all the mental beatdown of getting booed by the fans and the fact that MI crashed out of the race for the Playoffs, Hardik would have been at one of his lowest ebbs heading into the T20 World Cup. Furthermore, rumours of his split with his wife, Natasa Stankovic, caught the entire nation's interest. It all began when Natasa removed 'Pandya' from her Instagram handle and archived some of her wedding photos with Hardik. Besides, when a post from Reddit claimed that Natasa would receive 70 per cent of Hardik's assets and properties, all hell broke loose. After weeks of jeering, the public sympathised with Hardik while Natasa bore the brunt.

However, things have calmed down over the last 15 days or so. Natasa has restored some of her photos with Hardik and Instagram stories of her kid Agastya bonding with Rohit Sharma's daughter Samaira and Hardik's brother Krunal Pandya's child. Hardik, meanwhile, stayed silent and away from the controversy all this while. Having not addressed the speculated divorce situation even once, Hardik, perhaps inadvertently, finally offered a sneak peek into his personal life.

Ahead of India's T20 World Cup game against Pakistan, Hardik and some of the Indian players were greeted by none other than Ricky Ponting. The former Australia captain and coach of the Delhi Capitals caught up with his DC mates Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Rishabh Pant before greeting Hardik. Below is how the short and simple chat went.

Hardik Pandya: "Ricky! How's everything? How's family?"

Ricky Ponting: "They're good mate. Very good! How about yours?"

Hardik Pandya: "All good. All sweet."

Well, that should put an end to the divorce speculations once and for all. Hardik's crisp answer indicates all is well between Mr. and Mrs. Pandya and that there is no trouble in paradise brewing. The video titled 'A day in Ricky Ponting's life' was shared by the ICC on its YouTube channel.

Hardik Pandya ticking all the boxes

That Hardik is in the right headspace is also visible in his performance. Sporting a new haircut, Hardik seems to have nothing to do with what transpired in the last two months. If India's warm-up tie against Bangladesh, where he scored an unbeaten 40 and picked up a wicket, Hardik began the T20 World Cup with figures of 3/27 against Ireland as India notched up an easy win.

Against Pakistan, Hardik's true match-winning credentials came to the fore as he dismissed Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan with short deliveries – his cold shrug of the shoulder was another example that Hardik is relishing playing out there for India under Rohit. He kept his form alive and kicking against the USA, picking 2/14 as India secured another comfortable win to cruise into the Super Eights. Hardik's true test with the bat is yet to be witnesses, but given the form he is in and the confidence with which he is operating, Hardik seems to be in the correct path.

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