Hardik Pandya was asked about the recent performance of the Mumbai Indians after Punjab Kings won the toss and opted to bowl in the IPL 2024 match.
Booed and heckled by fans following his ascension to the captaincy throne at Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya expects his side to spark a turnaround after losing four matches in the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League. The five-time winners arrived in Chandigarh for matchday 33 of the IPL 2024 against hosts Punjab Kings at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium. Mumbai Indians are struggling since Pandya took charge from the much-loved India captain – Rohit Sharma.
Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya and Punjab Kings stand-in captain Sam Curran during the toss ceremony (PTI)
Hardik replaced India skipper Rohit as MI’s new captain in the lead-up to the new season. Under his leadership, the joint-record time winners have registered only two wins in the IPL 2024. MI were two points above tenth-placed Royal Challengers Bengaluru when the visitors squared off against the Shikhar Dhawan-less side. Speaking at the toss, all-rounder Pandya opened up about MI’s performance in the league stage of the cash-rich tournament.
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‘We don’t judge’: Hardik on MI’s performances in IPL 2024
Stand-in skipper Sam Curran won the toss and the Punjab Kings elected to bowl against Hardik’s MI. In conversation with former India spinner Murali Kartik, Hardik admitted that MI would have also opted to bat. “We wanted to bat first as well, so good toss to lose. We don’t judge (our performances), couple of times we had the game in our grasp and didn’t finish the game, IPL tests you, when the game is not over it is not over. We just take it game by game, go out there and give our 100 percent. Every individual should commit to the team’s goal, and once we do that, the results will be seen. Same team,” Hardik said.
MI unchanged against PBKS
Hardik was called out by legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar for his ‘ordinary bowling and captaincy’ against Chennai Super Kings in the first El Clasico of the new season. Skipper Hardik leaked 26 runs in the final over of the CSK innings. The MI captain was hammered for three sixes by CSK icon MS Dhoni at the Wankhede Stadium. After losing the Clasico to CSK by 20 runs, MI’s Hardik named an unchanged side for the away game against PBKS in Chandigarh.
Mumbai Indians playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Gerald Coetzee, Shreyas Gopal, Jasprit Bumrah.
