Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan took a veiled dig at MI captain Hardik Pandya after the hosts mustered a substandard score in their first home game in Mumbai against Rajasthan Royals in the ongoing IPL 2024.
MI came into the game having lost both their first two games. Hardik Pandya captained MI for the first time in Wankhede Stadium and was booed loudly by the crowd as well. Meanwhile, RR skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and chose to bowl first.
And his bowlers Trent Boult and Nandre Burger gave RR a dream start. Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, and Dewald Brevis were all dismissed for golden ducks. Ishan Kishan (16) followed soon as MI was reduced to 20/4 in no time.
But then Hardik Pandya (34) and Tilak Varma (35) gave MI stability. However, Samson brought Yuzvendra Chahal into attack and he claimed three quick wickets as MI was restricted to 125/9 in 20 overs. Apart from Chahal, Boult (3/22) and Burger (2/32) were the pick of the bowlers.
Irfan Pathan was not happy with the set MI batters going on to take their side to a bigger total and in a veiled dig at Hardik said that once the batter is set, he should take the team through.
“Ppl who understand the game well know this. If you are set, you got to see the team thru,” he posted on X.
Furthermore, Hardik Pandya also decided to start with Jasprit Bumrah and Kwena Maphaka instead of bowling the first over himself. Pandya had been doing the same in the first two matches that MI played and was taken to the cleaners with 1 wicket for 76 runs.
At that time, Pathan had criticized Pandya for not opening the bowling with Bumrah, especially during the SRH match, and had posted on X: “The captaincy of Hardik Pandya has been ordinary, to say the least. Keeping Bumrah away for too long when the carnage was on was beyond my understanding.”
This time when MI need to defend a small total and Hardik Pandya opened the bowling with Bumrah, Pathan cited the small total as a reason for forcing Pandya to do so.
Pathan posted: “Not a rocket science to get your best bowler early on. Finally Bumrah with the new ball. It was forced cos of small total by RR.”
