‘Rapist’ Hardik Pandya trolled after divorce from Serbian wife

Indian national team star all-rounder Hardik Pandya was labelled a “rapist” this week after his separation from his wife, Serbian dancer and model Natasa Stankovic.

The confirmation of Hardik Pandya’s breakup with Natasa Stankovic sparked a flood of reactions on social media, with female users particularly pointing out the former’s misogynistic remarks on film producer Karan Johar’s talk show.

These X-account holders reminded netizens of Hardik Pandya’s past sexist behavior and criticized the Indian national team cricketer for his crass behavior towards the opposite sex and treating others like sex objects.

On Thursday, Hardik Pandya announced that he and Natasa Stankovic were separating.

“After four years together, Natasa and I have decided to part ways amicably. We have tried our best together and given our all and we believe this is what is best for both of us. This decision was difficult for us considering the joy, mutual respect and companionship we enjoyed together and as we started a family,” Hardik Pandya wrote on his Instagram account.

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

It may be recalled that speculations about Hardik Pandya’s relationship with Natasa Stankovic have been doing the rounds for quite some time, especially after the latter removed the surname Pandya from her social media profile. Also, Natasa Stankovic has deleted all her pictures with Hardik Pandya from Instagram.

Moreover, she was never seen cheering for Hardik Pandya in international matches or IPL matches, even when the Gujarat-born cricketer was going through a difficult phase in his career.

For example, Natasa Stankovic kept her mouth shut when Hardik Pandya faced a barrage of online abuse and was booed by the crowd during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 after he was named captain of the Mumbai Indians in place of Rohit Sharma.

Natasa Stankovic did not send a message of support after Hardik Pandya sustained an injury during India’s home ODI match in the World Cup last year.

Interestingly, this is not the only bad news that Hardik Pandya has received in the last few days.

Earlier this week, Hardik Pandya was snubbed by the national selection committee chaired by Ajit Agarkar and relieved of his leadership position in the Indian cricket team for the upcoming T20I series against Sri Lanka.

While he was not named captain of the T20I team, which came as a surprise as experienced batsman Suryakumar Yadav was promoted to that position, Shubman Gill was named as the Mumbai batsman’s deputy.

Hardik Pandya’s rejection, however, did not please former Indian batsman Mohammad Kaif as he felt that Hardik Pandya had already proved his leadership qualities in the IPL and hence should have been the first choice to lead the national team in the T20Is.

“Hardik was captain of Gujarat Titans for two years and in the first year they made it to the final…Hardik has experience of captaining the T20I team. He was also vice-captain in the T20 World Cup. Now a new coach is there, there will be new plans. Surya is also a good player, he has been playing for years. He is a No.1 T20 player, I hope he will handle the responsibility of captaincy 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 has done nothing wrong that would not make him a captain’,” he explained.

“He has experience, he has been captain in the IPL and it is a big deal to lead a new team (Gujarat Titans) with fresh and young faces to the trophy. He has helped the Titans win by operating from ground zero in the IPL… I think he deserves the captaincy. So let’s just wait and see,” Mohammad Kaif explained.

On the other hand, Hardik Pandya spoke about his fitness this week, just days after his split with Natasa Stankovic and after being ignored for the captaincy of India in the T20Is.

“I never knew what fitness would do to me, but I just felt that I always wanted to be number one in everything I did. That’s why, even as a kid, I trained a lot, pushed myself and ran a lot, so I had a very good, strong base,” said Hardik Pandya during a launch event.

“Of course, I didn’t know much about the body, didn’t know much about how to improve my fitness but because my base was strong and I knew the basics of what you should do in training, it helped me when I got to the higher level. Earlier, if I am not mistaken, I used to bowl 130s; above 130s, I could bowl 140 plus, 142 through pressure, that’s when I realised in 2017 whether I should focus more on my body or not and that’s when I started applying pressure,” he concluded.