'Hardik Pandya Is Smiling Too Much' Sunil Gavaskar, Kevin Pietersen Rip Into MI Captain For 'Ordinary Bowling, Ordinary Captaincy' After Loss To CSK

Poor returns with both bat and ball and an uninspirational piece of captaincy did not make Sunil Gavaskar, Kevin Pietersen huge fan of MI captain Hardik Pandya.

Gavaskar, Pietersen roasts Hardik Pandya. (Source: AP/X)

Hardik Pandya, MI captain, is now feeling the heat. He has been constantly trolled by the MI fans since taking over as the captain of the Mumbai-based franchise this year and now after losing four games out of 6, he is also facing brutal criticism in hands of legends like Sunil Gavaskar and Kevin Pietersen. Hardik was very ordinary as captain on Sunday night during the 'El Clasico' of IPL between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Gavaskar slammed the poor captaincy by Pandya while Pietersen said that Hardik is clearly trying to hide his emotions by smiling way too much than required.

Hardik came on to bowl the last over which saw MS Dhoni smash him for three back-to-back sixes. Gavaskar said that it seemed as if Pandya was gifting these full deliveries to Hardik. "Probably the worst kind of bowling that I've seen for a long, long time. It almost looks like I've had this embrace with my hero. I've got the kind of deliveries that he's gonna hit for sixes. One six is fine. The next one is a length ball when you know this batter is hunting for a length ball that he wants to hit. Third ball is again a full toss on the legs when you know he [Dhoni] is looking for a six," Gavaskar said on Star Sports during the innings break.

"Oh, absolutely ordinary bowling, ordinary captaincy. They should have been restricted despite the fact that Ruturaj Gaikwad had batted so well along with Shivam Dube. I do believe that they should have been restricted to 185-190".

Pietersen said that Pandya's poor captaincy reflected in the fact that he did not choose to bowl a spinner when the pacers were leaking runs in abundance. There was Plan A that was made in the dressing room five hours ago, said Pietersen, but when things went wrong on the field, there was no Plan B from Pandya. Former England cricket revisited his own experiences as leader of the national team and said that he too has been on the firing line and understands what Pandya is going through right now. He said that Pandya is smiling way too much, hiding his emotions as the outside noise is affecting him mentally way too much.