Former Indian pacer Irfan Pathan has criticized newly appointed Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya for his captaincy blunders in the team’s six-run defeat against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on Sunday, March 24.
Hardik Pandya’s batting position questioned
Pathan questioned Hardik’s decision to come in to bat at No.7 in the penultimate over of MI’s run-chase. He felt that Hardik should have faced ace spinner Rashid Khan earlier in the innings. Hardik scored a quick-fire 11 off 4 balls but was unable to take his team over the line.
Pathan speculated that Hardik may not have wanted to face Rashid after a long break from cricket. He believed that it was a mistake to send Tim David ahead of Hardik to face the Afghanistan spinner.
“When they were chasing, they sent Tim David higher up the order. He sent Tim David when Rashid Khan had an over left. I felt Hardik Pandya maybe didn’t want to face Rashid Khan after having not played cricket for a long time. This could be the case. I won’t agree with the fact that there was an experienced Indian batter sitting in the dressing room and sent an overseas player under pressure against Rashid. They missed a trick there,” said Pathan in a video on his Instagram handle.
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Bowling decisions criticized
Pathan also criticized Hardik’s decisions regarding the bowling strategy. He questioned the skipper’s choice to bowl two overs himself in the powerplay and introduce Jasprit Bumrah only in the fourth over. Notably, Hardik bowled the first over of the match and conceded 11 runs. However, he returned to bowl the third over and gave away back-to-back boundaries on the first two deliveries, allowing GT to get off to a good start. Pathan felt that it was a mistake for Hardik to bowl two overs in the powerplay and delay Bumrah’s entry into the attack.
“Hardik Pandya made big mistakes in the match. In the powerplay, he bowled two overs himself, that was a big mistake. He brought Jasprit Bumrah into the attack a bit late,” added Pathan.