Here’s a scoop for you! Peeping Moon.com would like fans of Hardik Pandya to know that the Team India all-rounder is not dating TV anchor, model and singer Shibani Dandekar as was earlier suspected. The two just had an interesting and somewhat flirtatious exchange on Twitter after Hardik’s scintillating performance in the ongoing India-Australia ODI series. Nor is he dating Kolkata model Lisha Sharma as was also suspected after she posted a picture of herself on social media with him. Poor Hardik went on Twitter himself on Valentine’s Day this year to explain, “I have been single and focusing on my game since a long time.”
So then who is Hardik Pandya dating, then?
The buzz is that the stylish right-handed batsman and bowler from Baroda is secretly dating Bollywood hottie and TV hostess Elli Avram who made a splash in the Bigg Boss 2013 season and then debuted in Hindi films the same year with Mickey Virus opposite TV impresario Manish Paul.
Sources close to both Hardik and Elli are thrilled with the development. Cricket and Bollywood, which are the country’s biggest attractions, have always been closely linked. Right from the time the swashbuckling Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi married the beautiful Bengali actress Sharmila Tagore in 1969 to the romance between Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma and the marriages of Harbhajan Singh and actress Geeta Basra in 2015 and Yuvraj Singh and model-turned-actress Hazel Keech in January this year.
Where and when Hardik and Elli met is not yet known. Hardik, 24, is quite a player off the field. But when his females fan following began to swell, his father Himanshu Pandya said in wonder, “I am not aware why my son is getting female attention. Maybe it is due to his playing style and role in Indian cricket. But we have no issue. Let him enjoy his life.”
As for Elli, the Swedish-Greek actress, 27, has admitted to having been in one relationship only before. “I have only on ex, and it’s over. Once it’s over, it’s over. There was no need to stay friends. I just moved on with no hard feelings,” Elli said in a candid media interaction.
The actress was seen in Poster Boys and Naam Shabana earlier this year. She just co-hosted a special segment of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge for Star Plus whose first episode will have Saif Ali Khan pairing with the show’s super-judge Akshay Kumar. The two actors reportedly pulled Elli’s leg while re-enacting their Main Khiladi Tu Anari hit number of 1994.