India all-rounder Hardik Pandya was recently criticised over his fitness by former India cricketer Praveen Kumar, who blatantly alleged that he has shown a pattern of getting injured two months before the Indian Premier League (IPL) season and not turning up for the domestic team, Baroda, or for his country as he has his focus on earning big bucks with his participation in the league. However, Hardik has broken his silence on the matter as he explained why he took a look break after the 2023 ODI World Cup, where he had twisted his ankle. Hardik was ruled out of the ICC event last October after incurring an injury. While he was expected to return in the knockout phase of the tournament, Hardik failed to recover and later missed every successive international fixtures thereafter, which included 11 T20I matches across three series against Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan, respectively. The India star is all set to return to action next week, when he takes over the role of captaincy for Mumbai Indians. As part of preparation for the tournament, Hardik participated in the DYPatil T20 tournament earlier this month. Speaking to Star Sports ahead of the start of IPL 2024, Hardik opened up on doing more of yoga during the break, before revealing that the reason for not playing cricket for India after his injury was because he had his focus being in the "best version" of himself when he made his return with his eye on making the T20 World Cup squad. "It is such a beautiful thing. I am so much aware of my body because of it. I had never tried it before in my life. My point is always simple - If I go out, what is the point of coming back as the same Hardik? I have to come up with a better version of myself. And my reason for taking this long break was not IPL. It is just one part of it. Post IPL, there is a bigger baby which is coming again, the World Cup. And I treat World Cups as my child. As many times as I can try and make sure that get them back I'll try. And this entire period of preparation is that if the end goal is to play the T20 World Cup at the best capacity and be the best version of myself," he said. MI will begin their campaign against Hardik's former team, Gujarat Titans, on March 24 in Ahmedabad. Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com