Hardik Pandya revealed the reason behind his rest

Hardik Pandya, the Indian All-rounder has been rested for the first two test against Srilanka last week with stating workload as an reason for the rest by the selectors and a statement said by BCCI is that the decision has been taken with consultation of the team management.

But Hardik Pandya though revealed that he had requested for the rest, since he has been suffering with some niggles and said he wants to play when he feels 100% fit.

"To be honest, I asked for it, because my body was not alright," he told CNN-News 18. "I want to play cricket when I'm totally fit and I'm giving my 100% and I was not able to give that because of a few niggles here and there, which is bound to happen because of the amount of cricket which I have played over this one year."

The allrounder has been part of the all matches since the Champions Trophy, India have played during the time period. While Pandya said he hadn't played so much  Cricket in such a short time, earlier to his debut, where he played just handful full of first class games and List A games.

"I have played 30 ODIs, 25 T20Is and three Test matches in one-and-a half-years," he said. "I have not played this much cricket in my total cricketing career in such a short time. As an allrounder, it's difficult. I do my bowling, I do my batting, I do fielding as well, and managing my workload is very important right now because I have not played much cricket in my life."

Although, Pandya who got his desired rest said that he will utilise the time to improve on his fitness with training in the gym and added he wants to be super fit for the South African Series later in this year.

"I'm lucky that I got this rest. Actually, rest means I'm going to train in the gym and improve my fitness and again come back properly fit. I'm pretty excited for the South Africa series. I wanted that break to get super fit for the South Africa series and then I can bounce back quickly.”

While when asked about the criticism that followed after the announcement of his rest, Pandya said,"Let's be honest. It doesn't matter what they think. What matters is what the management thinks and what I think is important for me."