2024-04-15 22:23:48
Mumbai: India’s star all-rounder Hardik Pandya faced sharp criticism from prominent former players after Mumbai Indians suffered their fourth defeat in the ongoing IPL. While Irfan Pathan attacked Hardik by taking the name of Akash Madhwal, former great batsman Sunil Gavaskar criticized him for ‘very ordinary bowling and ordinary captaincy’ till now. Pandya, who has been facing booing from fans since taking over the captaincy of Mumbai, had to face criticism from Gavaskar and former England captain Kevin Pietersen after the team’s 20-run defeat against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday night.
Pandya gave away 26 runs in the last over of the innings in which Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit three sixes in a row. Gavaskar said during the innings break, ‘Oh, very ordinary bowling, ordinary captaincy. Despite Ruturaj Gaikwad batting very well along with Shivam Dubey, they should have been stopped at a low score. I believe he should have been restricted to 185-190 runs. “Probably the worst bowling I have seen in a long time,” he said.
On the other hand, Irfan Pathan wrote- While bowling the last over, Hardik Pandya showed the lack of confidence in Akash Madhwal’s bowling and his lack of skill as a death over bowler. Pandya took two wickets for 43 runs in three overs and even while batting, he could score only two runs in six balls. Despite former captain Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten inning of 105 runs in 63 balls, Mumbai team could score only 186 runs for six wickets while chasing the target of 207 runs. Pietersen believes that this star all-rounder is being affected by external criticism.
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He said, ‘I really think that things outside the game are influencing Hardik Pandya a lot. He smiles a lot when he goes for the toss. He’s trying to act like he’s very happy. he is not happy. This has happened to me. I’ve been through it and I can tell you it affects you.
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He said, ‘The booing we are hearing right now. I know they were happy with the former Super Kings captain (Dhoni) playing shots against him (Pandya) all over the ground, it hurts you. Because they have feelings. He’s an Indian player and he doesn’t want to be treated like that so when it happens it affects him. This is affecting his cricket. Pietersen also wondered why Pandya did not use his spinners when the Super Kings batsmen were scoring runs easily against the fast bowlers.