Fans slam Hardik Pandya for his comments after making his India captaincy debut

India’s 9th T20 international captain, Hardik Pandya was given a great start to his captaincy career in the 2 match series. The match was a rain shortened one and reduced to 12 over per side, as the fans had to wait a while to see the action. Hardik Pandya, was the vice captain in the recent series against South Africa to Pant who was the captain. Pandya led his side Gujarat Titans to a title win in their debut season of the TATA IPL 2022.

The story as it happened –

Hardik Pandya on Saturday was addressing a press conference ahead of the 1st T20 against Ireland. During the course of the interaction, he named Kohli and Dhoni as his inspiration and left out Rohit Sharma. Pandya had said “I have taken lots of things from Kohli and Dhoni – at the same time, I wanted to be natural as a captain. I like to be practical and take decisions that way.”

Fans slam Hardik Pandya on twitter –

Cricket fans, specially the Mumbai Indians fans saw red when Hardik Pandya did not name Rohit Sharma. Pandya was released after the end of the IPL 2021 season and he was duly picked by Gujarat. Many fans gave their opinion on the issue, while one fan was thankful Mumbai did not retain him.

"Hardik Pandya's contribution to MI will never be forgotten" was what Rohit Sharma said when I asked him about Hardik during IPL.

Maybe whatever Hardik said is been taken out of context. But if there's even one percent of ignorance on purpose, it's just sad. #CricketTwitter

— Anuj Prabhu 🇮🇳 (@APTalksCricket) June 26, 2022

Harry Tector wages a lone battle with the bat –

India won the toss and put Ireland into bat, on a pitch which had a green tinge. After a stop start due to rain, the game was made into a 12 over affair. Umran Malik made his India debut much to the happiness of many fans. India struck early when they had Ireland at 22 for 3. Ireland skipper Balbirnie was bowled by Kumar for a 2 ball duck, Stirling was caught by Hooda off Pandya for 4, while Avesh Khan had Delaney caught behind by Karthik for 4. Tector and Tucker added 50 runs for the 4th wicket with Tector scoring a career best 64 not out to help Ireland reach 108.

India coast home to a 7-wicket win–

Chasing 109 from 12, the Indian batting charge was led by Ishan Kishan who made use of the small ground. Kishan was bowled by Young for 11 ball 26 with 3 fours and 2 sixes, the very next ball he trapped Surya Kumar Yadav LBW for a 1st ball duck. Deepak Hooda was given a rare chance to open the innings. The 27 year old responded in style by scoring 47 off 28 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes. Pandya scored a quick 24 off 12 balls a four and 3 sixes, while Karthik was not out on 5 as India won by 7 wickets with 16 balls in hand.