KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya will face off when Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) play against Gujarat Titans (GT) in match 30 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on Saturday, April 22. Although they will be opponents on the field, the two captains share a strong bond and are good friends. Their friendship has had its ups and downs, including controversy following their appearance on the chat show Koffee with Karan in 2019, where they made inappropriate remarks about women. Despite this, the talented cricketers overcame challenges in their friendship and remained close. As they compete in the IPL 2023 match on Saturday, let’s look back at three moments that showcase their bond:
1) When Hardik and Rahul swapped jerseys
At the time, Rahul was playing for Kings XI Punjab (PBKS), and Hardik was representing Mumbai Indians (MI). In an exciting match that came down to the last ball, Mumbai Indians batted first and scored 186/6. Punjab put up a good fight but fell short, finishing on 183/5 and losing by three runs. Rahul and Hardik’s heartwarming gesture at the end of the game caught attention. Hardik shared a video of it with the caption:
“Play hard, play fair! Respect comes first. ✊???? Super knock, by a super player and an even better friend.”
Sharing his thoughts on the gesture, KL stated:
“We’ve seen this happening a lot in football and Hardik and I are good friends. I felt it will be nice to collect some jerseys and bring that tradition to cricket as well. We didn’t speak about his earlier. As we were talking, I said ‘give me your jersey’ and he wanted my jersey too. So, we exchanged jerseys. It’s a nice, nice thing.”
2) Hardik and Rahul’s toss banter
During the IPL 2022 match between LSG and Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, Rahul and Hardik engaged in playful banter at the toss, showing their strong friendship. Rahul tossed the coin, and Pandya called ‘heads’. Rahul lost the toss as the captain of Gujarat Titans, but he couldn’t resist teasing his friend. He turned to referee Narayanan Kutty and joked:
“Tails bola hai na?” (He said tails right?)
Pandya quickly responded with a loud ‘heads’, and the two captains shared a good laugh over the moment.
3) Rahul’s adorable moment with Hardik’s son Agastya
Last year, Pandya shared a cute video of Rahul dancing with Agastya to the popular song ‘Waka Waka’. The video was filmed by Athiya Shetty and shared by Hardik on Rahul’s birthday. When posting the clip on his official Instagram account, the all-rounder wrote:
“Happy birthday my bro. Only love from your two favourite boys. Vc: @athiyashetty.”
Rahul replied to the heartwarming post with a playful comment, writing:
“Thank you bro. Aggy is my no.1 now sorry.”