‘What’s the question?’: Mohammad Shami questions Hardik Pandya’s MI captaincy, takes digs from ‘Tailender’ | Cricket News

Hardik Pandya has had a memorable start as captain of Mumbai Indians. Under his leadership, Mumbai Indians started the 2024 IPL season with six consecutive losses to the Gujarat Titans. Despite entering the final over of the game, Mumbai Indians failed to achieve the target of 169 runs. Captain Hardik Pandya scored just 11 runs from four deliveries, but what was more puzzling was his batting position at No. 7. The decision was widely criticized and Pandya’s Indian cricket teammate Mohammed Shami was also surprised.

“There’s a lot of talk about left-right combinations. I don’t understand anything like that. Last game we also talked about how mature Pat Cummins is. You need to stay one step ahead. You should be thinking, ‘I’m the captain, I should take this on’ Responsibility.” As far as Hardik is concerned, you have batted at No. 3 and No. 4 in the Gujarat Titans, what are the problems in batting at No. 4 or No. 5 here in MI? Hardik at No. 7 has basically become a tailback,” Shami said on Cricbuzz.

“When you bat at No. 7, you are under a lot of pressure. I think if Hardik had come earlier, the match would not have dragged on until the end.”

“Is he following Dhoni’s template?” the anchor asked Shami.

“Dhoni is Dhoni. You can’t compare anyone. Everyone has a different mentality, be it Dhoni or Kohli. You should stay in the game based on your skills. You have batted at No. 3 and 1 in the last two seasons respectively. No. 4. You are “used to this position.” You can play No. 5 at most, but not No. 7. ” Shami replied.

Panel member Manoj Tiwary said Hardik’s decision to bat at No. 7 was not taken by the MI captain alone.

“I feel it was not his decision. I feel in Gujarat, there were only two people who were running the game, Hardik and Nehra. There were some big names present in the dugout in Mumbai. So maybe they influenced him to drop the order” Because they invested a lot in young players like Tilak Verma and Brevis. Mark Boucher will obviously listen to Sachin… and then he will discuss it with other members of the team management and then take a decision,” he said.