Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan didn't mince words when expressing his disappointment with the new Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya following their loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in a high-scoring game that saw multiple records shattered on Wednesday. (More Cricket News)
Pathan took to X to critique Pandya's captaincy, describing it as "ordinary" and questioning his decision to keep Jasprit Bumrah away from bowling for too long.
"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," the former India all-rounder wrote on the social media platform.
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Bumrah had bowled a solitary over for five runs till the end of 12th over when Hyderabad had already raced to 173.
Pathan was also not impressed by Pandya's batting performance, noting that the strike rate of the new Mumbai Indians skipper was not upto the mark in the game where almost every other batter batted at a strike of around 200.
"If the whole team is playing with the strike of 200, Captain can’t bat with the batting strike rate of 120," Pathan wrote.
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Pandya had a poor outing as a batter too.
Chasing a record 278, the five-time champions kept up with the required rate for the larger part of the innings before faltering towards the end. Hardik could only muster 24 runs off 20 balls and his strike rate was a meagre 120. All other Mumbai Indians players scored at a strike rate of close to 200.
Pandya had an ordinary day as a bowler as well as he conceded 46 runs in his four-over spell despite taking the early wicket of Mayank Agarwal.
Mumbai Indians suffered their second straight loss in the tournament on Wednesday when Sunrisers Hyderabad shattered the long standing record of the highest IPL total as they scored a mammoth 277/3. Mumbai Indians in reply fought hard but ended up 31 runs short at 246/5.
