It seems like new Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya is facing flak for whatever he does. Hardik Pandya came under fire from former Australia captain Steve Smith for his captaincy decisions during Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 31-run victory over the Mumbai Indians. Smith expressed his confusion at Pandya’s mistreatment of MI pacer Jasprit Bumrah during the SRH vs MI match. Smith made this remark because, up until the 13th over, Bumrah had only bowled one over. With 277 runs in the first innings, SRH went on to record the highest-ever IPL total in history.
After SRH’s victory, Smith talked to Star Sports and said that he would have bowled Bumrah out by the 15th or 16th over. In the 13th over, Pandya brought Bumrah back into the attack, but by then, the visitors had already conceded 173 runs. Bumrah was MI’s most economical bowler of the evening, conceding 36 runs in his four overs and finishing without a wicket.
Perplexed by Hardik’s use of Bumrah: Smith
“I think they missed a trick in bringing Bumrah back in the 13th over. When the ball’s going around like that, you’ve just got to bring your best bowler back earlier than you would’ve liked. It’s just about adapting on the go. I would’ve bowled Bumrah out by the 15-16th over to try to get some wickets,” said Smith.
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“Once you get some wickets, you slow the run-rate down anyway. If these guys are batting at the end, it doesn’t matter who is bowling. We saw that in the last two overs where he still got smacked. So if he came back earlier and took some risks, things could have been really different. They got 277, they could’ve been down to 250 and they might’ve chased those down. I was just perplexed that Bumrah had bowled just 1 over up until the 13th over,” he added.
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