Irfan Pathan clarified his IPL 2025 commentary omission wasn’t linked to his remarks on Rohit Sharma. He stressed that his critiques were purely professional and also defended players against unnecessary personal attacks.
Former India all-rounder turned commentator Irfan Pathan has finally broken his silence on his exclusion from the broadcaster’s commentary panel for the Indian Premier League (2025). Ahead of the 18th season of the IPL, there was a controversy sparked when Irfan Pathan’s name was missing from the commentary panel, despite being one of the most popular voices in recent IPL seasons.
It was speculated that Irfan Pathan’s harsh criticism of Rohit Sharma for his disastrous performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy had led to his exclusion from the commentary panel for the recently concluded IPL season. During the Australia Test series, which Team India lost 1-3, Pathan criticized the former India Test skipper for his horrible outing in the BGT, where he amassed just 31 runs at an average of 6.2 in 5 innings.
Despite criticism of Rohit Sharma’s outing in the Australia Test series, Irfan Pathan clarified that his exclusion from the commentary panel for IPL 2025 was not due to those remarks, but was instead linked to reasons unrelated to his on-air analysis in the previous season of the tournament.
Hardik Pandya behind Pathan’s omission from IPL commentary panel?
When Irfan Pathan was omitted from the commentary panel for IPL 2025, there were widespread speculations about backstage differences and disagreements between him and the broadcaster. The former India all-rounder finally put the speculations of the IPL 2025 commentary exclusion to rest.
Speaking in an interview with Lallantop, Irfan Pathan believes that Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya might have played a role in getting him excluded from the commentary panel. Pathan stated that his criticism of Hardik was not due to personal bias but rooted in his profession. However, the 40-year-old dismissed the rivalry with the Pandya brothers.
“If I’m criticising you in 7 matches out of 14, I’m still being lenient. That is our job as broadcasters,” Pathan said.
“There is no rivalry. All the Baroda players who have come after me, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, or Hardik Pandya, none of them can say that Irfan-Yusuf did not help them,” he added.
Hardik Pandya had a disappointing campaign as a Mumbai Indians captain in 2024. Under the leadership of Pandya, the five-time IPL champions finished at the bottom of the points table with just four wins and 10 losses, accumulating just 8 points in 14 matches.
Hardik was traded by the Gujarat Titans to the Mumbai Indians after serving two seasons with the former franchise, leading to two consecutive IPL finals and winning the maiden triumph in their debut IPL season in 2022, defeating the Rajasthan Royals in the final.
Irfan Pathan was against ‘derogatory words’ used against Hardik Pandya
Despite Irfan Pathan criticising Hardik Pandya for his captaincy, the former all-rounder defended the Mumbai Indians captain for the derogatory words and personal attacks directed at him by fans.
Mumbai Indians fans were quite disappointed with the franchise for sacking Rohit Sharma and replacing him with Hardik Pandya. Throughout the IPL 2024, Hardik received a hostile reception at every venue he had played, and Mumbai Indians’ home ground, Wankhede Stadium, was not an exception.
“There is nothing wrong with criticising the player, if you play, you have to go through that. It happened with Sunil Gavaskar, the great Sachin Tendulkar… they never made anyone feel, they were bigger than the game. But I’m against the derogatory words used against Pandya,” Irfan Pathan.
However, Hardik Pandya made a stunning comeback as captain, leading the Mumbai Indians to the playoffs for the first time in this IPL season. Their campaign, however, came to an end with a defeat in Qualifier 2 against the Punjab Kings at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.