Hardik Pandya remains the man in the news, but not for the right reasons. Ever since he became captain of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians, he has faced extreme criticism from fans. Seeing their beloved Rohit Sharma being sacked from the role of leader, fans booed and even abused Hardik on the spot. Mumbai Indians’ results in the IPL 2024 campaign haven’t helped Hardik either as the franchise lost three matches on the trot. Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan, in a cryptic post on X (formerly) Twitter, appeared to have targeted Hardik after he failed to capitalize on his good start in the match against Rajasthan Royals on Monday.
In a series of posts on
“People who understand the game well know this very well. When you are ready, you have to help the team through,” Irfan wrote in the first post.
People who understand the game well know this. When you’re done, you should see the team.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 1, 2024
“You always want your leader to do the hard things. If he doesn’t, he won’t earn the respect of his team,” his second message read.
You always want your Leader to do the hard things. If he doesn’t, he won’t earn the respect of his team.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 1, 2024
Hardik, after MI suffered their third consecutive defeat of the season, admitted that his dismissal in the match changed the course of the match.
“Yes, a tough night, we didn’t start the way we wanted to start. I wanted to counter, we were in a good position to get around 150-160, but my wicket allowed them to get back into the game more. “I had to do a lot more. It’s okay, we didn’t expect a surface like that, but you can’t always have it as a batsman, it’s nice sometimes for the bowlers to have a say.
“It’s about doing the right things. Sometimes (right) results happen, other times they don’t. As a group we believe we can do much better, but we have to be a little more disciplined and show a lot more courage,” Hardik said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
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