Hardik Pandya, who will captain the Mumbai Indians in the next Indian Premier League (IPL), is getting ready to make a comeback to action. Hardik is returning to the Gujarat Titans, where he started his IPL career in 2015, following two incredible years with the team.
He is not only coming back to MI, however he has also succeeded Rohit Sharma as captain. Hardik Pandya took some time recently to think about his time with the five-time champions.
During a segment on “Star Nahi Far,” a Star Sports programme, Hardik Pandya was quizzed the crowd with his MI numbers. Hardik expressed amazement when a spectator estimated that he had hit ten half-centuries throughout the competition. He amusingly replied with the comment, “I have that many? Wow.”
The Mumbai Indians skipper also said, “I don’t believe in 50s or 100s. Stats are just numbers; it’s a waste of time.”
“Indian cricket won’t achieve the desired results” : Irfan Pathan
The cricket world has been talking about Hardik’s remark, especially after some recent occurrences regarding player contracts. Former India bowler Irfan Pathan highlighted the need for equitable treatment of all players. This happens after Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were removed from their Indian Cricket Board central contract for not playing domestic cricket.
Pathan questioned in a social media post if it is still reasonable to expect superstars like Hardik, who prefer the shorter format of cricket to limited overs, to play local white-ball cricket when they are not representing their country. He emphasised that some criteria should be applied consistently to every player.
Irfan Pathan took to twitter to comment on this as he said, “They are talented cricketers, both Shreyas and Ishan. Hoping they bounce back and come back stronger. If players like Hardik don’t want to play red-ball cricket, should he and others like him participate in white-ball domestic cricket when they aren’t on national duty? If this doesn’t apply to all, then Indian cricket won’t achieve the desired results!”
