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'Bad Captaincy' - Yusuf Pathan Hammers Hardik Pandya's Captaincy After MI Concedes 277 

Hardik Pandya's captaincy has been a point of debates [X.com]Hardik Pandya's captaincy has been a point of debates [X.com]

Pressure and scrutiny continue to pile on Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya as his team conceded the highest-ever IPL score of 277 in the defeat against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2024 on Wednesday (March 28). 

Pandya, who has faced a backlash from MI's passionate fans since taking over their favourite and veteran opener Rohit Sharma on the captaincy post, is now also under fire from prominent experts for his choices as an on-field tactician with his team suffering their second consecutive defeat. 

Former India middle-order batter Yusuf Pathan questioned the premier allrounder's captaincy during a pedestrian bowling effort by an inexperienced and in-transition Mumbai attack, with Pandya reserving ace speedster Jasprit Bumrah's overs even as Sunrisers unfurled a brutal two-end assault against his team. 

Yusuf Pathan Criticises Hardik Pandya's Captaincy 

Even as record-shattering fifties from Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma as well wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen's brutal 80* off just 34 deliveries took the game way past MI, Pandya rigidly followed plan A with his bowling choices and bowled Bumrah just once in the first 12 overs of the innings. 

"SRH ne 11 overs mein hi 160+ score kar liya hai, and @Jaspritbumrah93 ko abhi tak sirf ek over hi kyun diya gaya? Your best bowler ko toh ab bowl karna chahiye. This seems like bad captaincy to me," Pathan said on Twitter against the tactics of fellow Baroda cricketer. 

Former Sunrisers head coach Tom Moody was also critical of Pandya's captaincy and wondered why didn't the skipper consider bringing back Bumrah early in the proceedings despite SRH giving the ball a full monte. 

Later on, Pandya's slow knock of 24 off 20 deliveries further hurt MI's slim chances of surpassing Sunrisers' insurmountable total as the five-time champions finished 31 runs short of the winning post.