Former India opener Kris Srikkanth blasted Hardik Pandya for lack of intent during Mumbai Indians IPL match against Chennai Super Kings on May 3. The former India selector called him a “plastic captain”, as MI are out of the playoff race this season.
Pandya walked in to bat at No. 6 and found it tough to get going and scored 18 off 23 balls as Mumbai went from 109 for four in 12.5 overs to finish the innings at 159 for seven.
The Mumbai Indians skipper was dismissed in the final over and struck just two boundaries and played a total of 10 dot balls during his innings. CSK chased down the target and won the match by eight wickets.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Srikkanth questioned Pandya’s intent and said Pandya lacked game awareness.
“Look at the numbers — 18 runs off 23 balls. What is this? He is a plastic captain.”
“Look at that partnership — what was the intent? What was Hardik Pandya trying to do? If you check the number of dot balls in the middle overs, it’s clear there was no proper calculation or game awareness. The run-rate dropped very drastically during that phase,” said Srikkanth.
“From around the 6th or 7th over, they started at about 9 runs per over, but then it went down — 7, 7, one over of 13, then 10, then 6. After that, 5, 4, 3, 7, 4 that’s where they lost it completely between overs 12 to 16. Even towards the end, it was just 7 runs and 4 runs while Hardik was still batting.”
Pandya’s strike rate of 136.45 this season has raised concerns, as MI haven’t had enough firepower in the middle overs. Srikkanth questioned what the captain’s plan was to deal with CSK’s tight bowling at the death.
“Honestly, I couldn’t understand what they were trying to do. What was the plan?”
One thing CSK did really well was not giving Pandya any easy balls. They kept targeting his body, with Jamie Overton doing it effectively. Srikkanth said teams have now figured out how to contain Hardik, and they are likely to keep using this approach by bowling at his body.
“They won’t bowl in the slot again. They will lock him down. They knew if they bowl length, he will smash them. So, they won’t bowl there,” said Srikkanth.
