“Captain can’t bat,” Irfan Pathan openly calls out Hardik Pandya for poor batting performance against SRH

Hardik Pandya scored with a strike rate of 120, the lowest out of all Mumbai Indians batters.

“Captain can’t bat,” Irfan Pathan openly calls out Hardik Pandya for poor batting performance against SRH

Hardik Pandya (Image via IPL)

On 27th March, the Indian Premier League saw one of its greatest games. Sunrisers Hyderabad scored a record breaking 277, the highest score in the history of the Indian Premier League. It also saw the highest aggregate score, with 523 runs in both innings. 

While chasing the highest target in IPL history, all Mumbai Indians batters showed intent from ball one. Almost all batters played at a strike rate of 188 or above, with the highest being from Ishan Kishan with 261. 

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Unfortunately there was one batter who didn’t hit as well as his teammates. It was the Mumbai Indians captain, Hardik Pandya. The all-rounder, who gave 46 runs in his spell, managed to score only 24 runs in 20 balls. That was at a strike rate of 120, which did not make fans happy. Former Indian all-rounder, Irfan Pathan, also openly called out how poorly Pandya batted. 

Hardik Pandya claims he liked Mumbai Indians bowling performance 

During the first innings of SRH’s clash with MI, almost all MI bowlers, except for Jasprit Bumrah, had an economy rate of over 11. They conceded 18 sixes and 17 boundaries, and a record breaking 277 runs. Despite this bowling performance, Hardik Pandya said he liked what he saw from his bowling attack. 

Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians (Image via IPL)
They (the bowlers) were good, it was tough out there, almost 500 runs were scored and the wicket was helping the batters, we could have done a few things here and there, but having said that, we have a young bowling attack, not that experienced so I like what I saw today. 
Hardik Pandya in the post-match presentation

He also backed 17-year-old rising star Kwena Maphaka. The young pacer had the figures of 0/66, but Pandya has promised he will back the youngster. He said the youngster bowled well and used his skillset, adding that he was overwhelmed.

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