The former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan was already very upset with Hardik Pandya, the skipper of Mumbai Indians for the manner in which he has led the team in the IPL 2024 and after the defeat of MI against Kolkata Knight Riders in yesterday’s match, Irfan has slammed Pandya in a heavy manner.
The chances of MI playing in the play-offs are almost over after the Mumbai team lost their eighth match which was played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Batting at their homeground, MI was not able to chase a modest target of 170 runs despite having some big names of the cricket world in their team. Suryakumar Yadav was the highest scorer for MI as he scored 56 runs but MI fell short by a huge margin of 24 runs.
KKR also faced troubles while batting but partnership of 83 runs between Venkatesh Iyer (70 runs) and Manish Pandey (42 runs) helped them in posting a total of 169 runs.
In a video shared on X, Irfan Pathan stated that questions or doubts raised over Hardik Pandya’s captaincy in the beginning of the tournament were absolutely correct. He went on to say that the MI players don’t respect their skipper which is a serious concern.
Irfan Pathan said in the video, “Mumbai Indians’ story ends here. This team was so good on paper, but it wasn’t managed. The questions that were raised on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy were absolutely right. When you’ve restricted KKR to 57/5, you didn’t have to give Naman Dhir three successive overs. You had to bring your main bowlers, and you gave your sixth bowler three overs. Manish Pandey and Venkatesh Iyer posted a strong partnership. You could’ve bowled them out on 150 instead you let them score 170.”
He further said, “Captaincy has a big impact in the game. Mumbai Indians don’t look like a united team, and management needs to consider this. Players need to respect and accept the captain, and we didn’t see that on-field. They have to improve in that aspect.”
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