Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya's social media post announcing his separation from his wife, Natasa Stankovic, sparked a viral meme storm on X, with netizens expressing their thoughts on the cricketer's split with 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 the both of us. This was a tough decision for us to make, given the joy, mutual respect and companionship we enjoyed together and as we grew a family,” Hardik Pandya wrote on his Instagram account.

“We are blessed with Agastya, who will continue to be at the centre 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 the privacy during this difficult and sensitive time,” he added.

It is worth remembering that speculation about Hardik Pandya's relationship with Natasa Stankovic was doing the rounds for some time, especially after the latter dropped the Pandya surname from her profile on social media. Besides, Natasa Stankovic removed all her pictures with Hardik Pandya from Instagram.

Additionally, she had not been seen cheering Hardik Pandya during international or IPL games, even when the Gujarat-born cricketer was going through a rough patch in his career.

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

Natasa Stankovic did not share a message of support for him after Hardik Pandya suffered an injury during India's ODI World Cup campaign at home last year.

Interestingly, it isn't the only bad news Hardik Pandya has experienced in recent days.

Earlier this week, Hardik Pandya was snubbed by the national selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar as he was removed from the leadership positions of the Indian Cricket Team for the forthcoming T20I series against Sri Lanka.

While he was not named captain of the T20I side in a surprise move with veteran batter Suryakumar Yadav elevated to that position, Shubman Gill was named the Mumbai batter's deputy.

Hardik Pandya's snub, however, did not go well with former India batter Mohammad Kaif, who reckoned that Hardik Pandya had already proven his leadership skills in the IPL and he 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, there will be new planning. Surya is also a good player, he has been playing for years. He is a no.1 T20 player, 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 the 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.

On the other hand, Hardik Pandya opened up about his fitness this week, only days after his separation from Natasa Stankovic and getting ignored for India's captaincy in T20Is.

“I never knew what fitness would do to me, but it's just that I felt it that for me I always wanted to be No. 1 in everything which I do, so in a 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 Pandya said during a launch event.

“Obviously, there was not much knowledge about the body, not much knowledge about 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 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), Ꮪhubman 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.