‘Absolutely ordinary bowling and ordinary captaincy’

Sunil Gavaskar

Star India all-rounder Hardik Pandya faced scathing criticism from prominent former players after Mumbai Indians's (MI) fourth loss with the great Sunil Gavaskar slamming him for his "absolutely ordinary bowling and ordinary captaincy" so far. Booed and heckled by fans ever since he took over MI's captaincy, Pandya found himself in the line of fire of the legendary Gavaskar and former England captain Kevin Pietersen after his team slumped to yet another defeat, this time to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Wankhede on Sunday night.

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It was the 26 runs that Pandya conceded in the final over with MS Dhoni going hammer and tongs, which proved to be decisive as CSK notched up a 20-run win over MI. "Oh, absolutely ordinary bowling, ordinary captaincy. They should have been restricted despite the fact that Ruturaj Gaikwad had batted so well along with Shivam Dube. I do believe that they should have been restricted to 185-190," Gavaskar told Star Sports.

"Probably the worst kind of bowling that I've seen for a long, long time. "It almost looks like I've had this embrace with my hero. I've got the kind of deliveries that he's gonna hit for sixes. One six is fine. The next one is a length ball when you know this batter is hunting for a length ball that he wants to hit. "Third ball is again a full toss on the legs when you know he [Dhoni] is looking for a six." Pandya finished with figures of 2-43 from his three overs.

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