Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan’s cryptic post went viral which came after India won the third T20I against West Indies on August 8, Tuesday in which seemed like a dig at captain Hardik Pandya for hitting a six to take the team home, but denied Tilak Varma his fifty.
The Men in Blue lost both of their openers, Yashasvi Jaiswal (1) and Shubman Gill (6), cheaply while chasing 160 for victory. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma placed the visitors on the verge of the win though, after adding 87 runs together for the third wicket.
After Surya got out on 83 off 44 balls, skipper Hardik Pandya joined Tilak in the middle and the pair forged an unbeaten 43-run stand to overhaul the target with 13 deliveries to spare.
However, before the win, India needed just 2 runs in 14 balls to romp home and Tilak Varma needed just one run to get to his second consecutive T20I fifty.
Unfortunately for him, Hardik Pandya hammered a slow delivery from Rovman Powell for a straight six to deny Tilak the milestone, but completed the win.
Tilak remained unbeaten on 49 in 37 balls which led to lots of discussions on social media in which fans and experts alike thought that Hardik Pandya should’ve given the youngster a chance to get to his half-century as there were over two overs left in the game.
Irfan Pathan also shared his thoughts on the same on social media platform X, but his post was a cryptic one as he didn’t name anyone.
Pathan posted: “Mushkil kaam aap karo, Asaan kaam mein Kar leta hoo. Suna suna Sa lagta hai…”
While the former India speedster didn’t specify which player or captain he was aiming his jibe at, fans speculated and dissected his message to the core with some saying it was for Hardik Pandya hitting a six when Tilak needed one for his fifty.
On the other hand, there were some pointing fingers at MS Dhoni and 2011 World Cup, when he came to bat ahead of Yuvraj Singh in the final against Sri Lanka and got all credit for the win despite Gambhir scoring a brilliant 97 after Men in Blue had lost two early wickets.
Some of the fans even speculated that Pathan was criticising Hardik Pandya for not sending Sanju Samson before him to let him finish the match and gain some confidence. They pointed out that Samson had batted before in the first two matches when the team was in tough situations.
And here, when things were easy, Pandya himself came out to finish the game.
Here are some reactions:
