After a loss, it’s a tough time for any team. Same is the case with Mumbai Indians, who started their journey under new skipper Hardik Pandya with a loss. The five-time champions headed to Gujarat Titans, Pandya’s former franchise, on Sunday. Ever since he became skipper in place of Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya has been under intense scrutiny. He himself must have felt that the eyeballs were following him a little more than in previous years.
After Mumbai Indians’ loss against Gujarat Titans, the internet is going at full speed. A video has gone viral on social media, featuring Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah discussing something. After Pandya walks away, Rohit and Bumrah continue to talk. This has led to intense speculation.
If you bring in a Chapri as captain, with leaders like Rohit and Bumrah in the squad, it will definitely happen! Look at his attitude, be captain, you do as I say! Bumrah said to Rohit, he is not even listening, what should I do? Rohit nods, just do what he wants! #MIVsGT #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/wTTQqeQ1bc
— Sushant Kumar Nahak (@sushantkoko) March 24, 2024
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard backed Hardik Pandya’s move to open the bowling in place of Jasprit Bumrah and also said that the skipper batting at number seven in their IPL opener against Gujarat Titans was a “collective decision”.
An inexplicable batting strategy saw MI lose their opener by six runs here on Sunday after they looked on course for victory.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bowl first and surprisingly Hardik opened the bowling against his former side.
“You have to plan and decide what you want to do as a team. Hardik (Pandya) has also bowled with the new ball for Gujarat in the last few years. He swung the new ball and bowled it well, which was nothing new to us.
“We tried to take advantage of the swing of the new ball. When I look at the decision that was made, there’s nothing wrong with that and we’ll move on,” Pollard said at the post-match press conference.
When the discussion turned to the logic behind Hardik coming to bat at number seven, Pollard said you cannot attribute the decision to the skipper.
“No decision is made on the basis of complete autonomy, so we cannot say it is his decision. As a team we have plans; we talk about establishing entry points for batters. The top order batted deep in the match, and we had also two power hitters to go in the back.
“If you look at it over time, Tim (David) has usually finished games for us, and Hardik has done that over the years.
“So at any time one of them could revive the situation. It didn’t happen tonight, so there will probably be some conversation about who should have gone sooner.
“But all these things are hindsight and as a team we make decisions, so let’s put an end to ‘Hardik made a decision, Hardik did this, Hardik did that’. We are a team. We make decisions collectively as one,” the West Indian said.
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