Ashwin got angry on which decision of Hardik?Image Credit source: PTI
R Ashwin Criticises Hardik Pandya: Under the leadership of Hardik Pandya, the bad phase of Mumbai Indians is showing no signs of ending. Since becoming the captain of Mumbai in 2024, the performance of the 5-time champion team has declined. The situation seemed to be improving in the last season but again in IPL 2026 the team is faltering. Especially some of Hardik’s decisions are constantly under question and now veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has expressed his displeasure over one such decision.
Ashwin’s displeasure is regarding the match played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Actually, in this match, Mumbai bowled first and Hardik himself gave away 38 runs in his 2 overs. In such a situation, when it was time to bowl the last over of the innings, instead of taking the responsibility himself, Hardik handed the ball to young pacer Krish Bhagat, who was playing only his second match and had given away 15 runs in the first over. In such a situation, hardly anyone would have expected that he would bowl the last over.
This decision of Hardik did not prove to be correct and Krish Bhagat gave away 16 runs. Ashwin put Hardik in the dock for this decision in a YouTube video. He said, “I have no personal relationship with Hardik Pandya but I have always found him a explosive player. It is easy to say anything about Hardik at this time but today when he gave the last over to Krish Bhagat, I believe that Pandya had given 38 runs in 2 overs. But if a player can bowl the last over to David Miller in the final of the T20 World Cup, then you could have done it here too.”
Avoiding Bhagat’s criticism, Ashwin expressed satisfaction with the performance of the inexperienced bowler and said, “Krish doesn’t have much experience, he didn’t do much wrong, I liked his bowling. But Pandya could have taken that pressure on himself. What’s the maximum that could have gone wrong?”
In this match played at Wankhede Stadium, Chennai defeated host Mumbai by a record margin of 103 runs. This is Mumbai’s biggest defeat in IPL. Hardik failed in both batting and bowling in this match. This season, Mumbai now has only 2 wins in 7 matches, while it has faced defeat in 5 matches. The team is currently at 8th position in the points table and now the race for the playoffs has become difficult for them.
