In a recent interview, Bollywood actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood shared his thoughts on the ongoing criticism for the Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Pandya has been receiving a lot of trolls ever since he has replaced the former captain of Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma from his captaincy leaving the Sharma fans agitated.
MI had already bought Pandya for 15 Crores from Gujarat Titans before the IPL auction, making him return to his former team after he served as captain in GT for two years and also helped the team win their maiden trophy in 2022. The management of Mumbai Indians however did not give any revelation regarding the shift of captaincy from Sharma to Pandya, the Rohit Sharma fans lambasted the management for this unjustified decision of stepping down the five times trophy lifting Skipper from his captaincy.
Pandya’s form so far in this IPL
In the 17th edition of IPL, the MI’s new skipper Pandya has been seen struggling to regain his form in order to support his team. MI has lost its two matches straight in this league, raising many questions on Pandya’s ability of captaincy. In its first match against Gujarat Titans, the MI skipper made a mere 11 runs before he was bowled out by Umesh Yadav. In the other inning, his bowling wasn’t also appreciable, with an economy of 10 the all rounder goes back to the dugout with no wickets in his bag. In the same match, the former captain Rohit Sharma was seen in a good form with his electrifying 46 runs off 29.
In the second match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, things got worse for Pandya as the team lost its second match by 31 runs also allowing SRH to register some big records to its team. Pandya was criticized for playing with a low run rate while the team had to chase a big number of 277. He bagged a wicket though leaked big 46 runs.
Here’s what the celebrities say:
After SRH vs MI, Irfan Pathan former Indian Cricketer turned Commentator took to X and wrote, “The captaincy of Hardik Pandya has been ordinary to say the least. Keeping Bumrah away for too long when the carnage was on was beyond my understanding.” In another tweet he slammed Pandya for his slow run rate by stating, “If the whole team is playing with the strike of 200, Captain can’t bat with the batting strike rate of 120.”
On 29 March a few days after the match, Sonu Sood was seen backing Hardik Pandya through his tweet where he said, “We should respect our players. Players who made us proud, players who made our country proud. One day you cheer for them, next day you boo them. It’s not they, it’s us who fail. I love cricket. I love every cricketer who represents my country.”
Sood urged the fans to support the players despite their few bad innings. Though he didn’t mention any specific player’s name or any franchise, netizens are speculating that his recent post was in Pandya’s Allegiance. Sonu Sood who’s a well-known and appreciated actor is all set to add a new feather to his cap by kicking off his new journey as a director for the film ‘Fateh’. He is enthralled about the film and also mentioned it as a ‘crucial subject’, reports ANI.
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