Irfan Pathan On Hardik Pandya: Mumbai Indians' poor performance continues in IPL 2026. Mumbai has suffered 5 defeats in 7 matches so far this season. Chennai Super Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by a huge margin at Wankhede Stadium. In this defeat, questions have been raised on Hardik Pandya's captaincy and performance. Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has criticized many of Hardik's decisions after this defeat and advised him to take accountability.

Irfan Pathan raised questions on Pandya

In the match, Sanju Samson played a century for Chennai, on the basis of which his team made a big score.

But during this time, Mumbai's young bowler Krish Bhagat was sent to bowl against Samson in the 16th and 20th overs. Irfan Pathan called it a wrong decision. He said that the captain himself should take responsibility before giving important overs to the young bowler against the set batsman. In these 2 overs, Krish Bhagat spent a total of 31 runs, which proved to be very heavy for the team.

While talking about Hardik Pandya on his YouTube channel, Irfan Pathan said, '"You are giving the 16th over to a bowler who is playing only his second match in the IPL, and that too against the in-form Sanju Samson.

This was not a good decision at all. Then, you are giving the last over to the same bowler against Samson, this is also not a good idea. You should take responsibility. As a captain, you should be active.'

Criticized even for bad batting

Irfan also raised questions on Hardik's batting. He told that since 2023, Hardik has not been able to score any half-century in IPL. Due to the change in his stance, he is performing better against the pacers, but his game has weakened against spin.

Even in this match he could score only 1 run. In such a situation, Irfan said, 'Even in batting, you played big shots in the beginning itself. There was pressure, but you yourself are not in form. Hardik has not scored a single half-century in IPL since 2023. He will have to move his feet properly against the spinners. He has changed his stance, widened it a bit. Due to this, he is able to hit the fast bowlers more, but his performance against spin has become weak. We saw the same in the T20 World Cup also.