'Too Many Mistakes By MI Captain': Irfan Pathan Attacks Hardik Pandya Again After MI Lose To LSG In IPL 2024

MI lost the Tuesday night game to Lucknow by four wickets, which is their eighth seventh defeat in ten matches.

Irfan Pathan slams Hardik Pandya's captaincy. (Source: X)

Mumbai Indians (MI) have had a terrible IPL 2024 season and it won't turn out to be a great one either now as they are on a brink of early exit from the tournament. MI lost their seventh match of the season in ten games and have almost zero chance of qualifying for the playoffs. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) beat them by four wickets to jump to the third spot in the IPL 2024 Points Tabkle with 6 wins from 10 matches. LSG look set to make it to the playoffs with four games still remaining in the group stage.

Hardik Pandya, MI's new captain, has been slammed this season for showing zero leadership skills. He has had tough one-and-a-half months leading the team as defeats have crushed the team's morale. Former India bowler Irfan Pathan directly put the blame on Pandya for MI's pathetic show in the IPL. He said that last year MI went to playoffs despite no Bumrah in the mix. This shows how many mistakes Pandya has done as captain.

"The team mumbai Indians that qualified last year didn’t had Jasprit Bumrah but this season they had his services. Still they are in this situation. Purely because the team wasn’t managed well on the ground. Too many mistakes by their captain Hardik Pandya. It’s the truth," Irfan tweeted after MI's loss against LSG.

If former Australia captain Michael Clarke is to be believed then MI are currently divided into different groups and not playing as a team. "Yeah, I don't know (they will make it to the playoffs). I think it's wishful thinking for Mumbai this entire IPL. I think there's a lot more going on than what we are seeing on the outside and you can't have that many good players and perform this inconsistently. Individual brilliance can get them over the line, if Rohit Sharma comes in and gets another hundred or Hardik does something with the bat or Bumrah bowls like a genius again, you never know," Clarke said.

It will be interesting to see how and what MI do to recover from this trend of losses. Not to forget, they have four matches remaining in the game and they must do everything to get the wins and finish the tournament on a high. From individual perspective, some batting and bowling form is the need of the hour for Hardik, who has been picked in the T20 World Cup 2024 squad.