Former India players Parthiv Patel, Zaheer Khan, and Aakash Chopra indirectly blamed Hardik Pandya for the Mumbai Indian’s defeat against Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League 2024.
MI were way ahead of GT during the chase, but the flurry of wickets allowed the Shubman Gill-led team to win the game by six runs.
Dewald Brevis, who was going strong, was dismissed in the 16th over, bowled by Mohit Sharma. Tim David was the next man in, and the former players felt Hardik should have been at the crease instead of the Aussie player.
David doesn’t play leg-spinners well, and this forced Tilak Varma, the other batter, to refuse to take a single on two occasions, resulting in two dot balls. This created pressure on Tim and Tilak, and they both perished. Hardik hit a six and a four but couldn’t continue.
“I feel Hardik should have come out to bat against Rashid Khan. Tim David has a problem against spinners and the captain should have known this. I think this also played a part in the defeat.” Parthiv Patel said.
Aakash Chopra also spoke on the same lines. “Hardik facing just 4 balls is not right. When you are Hardik, you must face more balls,” Aakash Chopra said.
Zaheer also hit out at the new MI captain. “He made a mistake. Hardik should have come out to bat ahead of Tim David,” he said.
Gujarat scored 168/6 in 20 overs, with Sai Sudharsan scoring 45 runs. Jasprit Bumrah took 3 wickets for the five-time champions. Chasing 169 in the allotted 20 overs, MI amassed 162/9. Rohit Sharma (43) and Brevis (46) were the top scorers for MI.
Azmatullah Omarzai, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, and Spencer Johnson took two wickets each.