Irfan Pathan supports BCCI’s choice to leave out Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from the main contract list. However, he also points out something important about Hardik Pandya.
Irfan questions why Hardik Pandya, who doesn’t play certain cricket matches in local leagues, gets treated differently. He thinks the Indian cricket board should treat Pandya the same as they treated Ishan and Iyer to get better results.
The Mumbai Indians captain hasn’t played since the ICC World Cup 2023 due to an injury. Recently, he appeared in the DY Patil T20 tournament after being away from cricket for a while.
Pandya often shares videos on social media but hasn’t been active in games. Before the DY Patil tournament, he played in three practice matches organized by the National Cricket Academy.
Because of a past back surgery, Pandya doesn’t play the longer red-ball cricket matches anymore but continues to play shorter formats for the Indian national team.
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Irfan shared his thoughts on the matter.
“They are talented cricketers, both Shreyas and Ishan. Hoping they bounce back and come back stronger. If players like Hardik don’t want to play red ball cricket, should he and others like him participate in white-ball domestic cricket when they aren’t on national duty? If this doesn’t apply to all, then Indian cricket won’t achieve the desired results,” he wrote.
This isn’t the first time Irfan has spoken about Hardik Pandya.
Irfan Pathan and Hardik Pandya haven’t always gotten along, despite playing for the same team in the Ranji Trophy. They both represented Baroda in domestic cricket. When it was announced that Hardik would leave Gujarat Titans for Mumbai Indians, Irfan questioned the loyalty of the player without directly naming him.
Hardik played for Mumbai since his IPL debut before moving to another team when the champions didn’t keep him for IPL 2022. He became captain of Gujarat Titans and led them to victory in the first season. The team made it to the final in 2023 but lost to Chennai Super Kings.
Pandya then decided to return to Mumbai for IPL 2024, and the deal was made between the two teams.
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