“Jasprit Bumrah had PBKS at a disadvantage”: IPL-winning coach questions Hardik Pandya’s captaincy

Former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody feels that Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya did not use spearhead Jasprit Bumrah optimally during the IPL clash against Punjab Kings, which allowed them to fight back from a difficult position and stay within walking distance of total MI. Bumrah was peerless in the game at Mullanpur on Thursday, taking the wickets of opener Sam Curran, Rilee Rossouw and the dangerous Shashank Singh to help MI win by nine runs. MI set PBKS a target of 193.

The India mainstay took two wickets in the second over, dismissing Curran and Rossouw, but just when PBKS looked down and out, he was withdrawn from the attack, allowing the home team to recover.

“Once again, Mumbai leaned so heavily on him to change their fortunes. He bowled two overs early on and had the Kings of Punjab on his back. But interestingly, he didn’t bowl another one until the 13th over,” said the premier cricketer Australian on Star Sports Cricket Live.

“He’s at the height of his powers at the moment. And that’s my point of view: I think the Mumbai Indians have let the Kings of Punjab back into this competition. (Gerald) Coetzee and Bumrah for me, and I’ll be interested to hear what the other fast bowlers think in this program. Should (Bumrah) have played again to be able to put Punjab completely on campus,” he added.

Former South African quick Dale Steyn opined that MI’s frontline pacers Bumrah and Coetzee need support from other players given the rigors of the IPL. He hinted that the discolored Pandya was not helping MI’s bowling department.

“We want to see them (MI) end games early by bringing Bumrah or Coetzee back. But then they have to depend on guys like Hardik to finish, who hasn’t been playing that well lately and some of the other players. traveling as (Romário) Shepherd, they may have difficulties at the rear.

“Mumbai is in a situation now where they need to sort things out tactically, but they also need someone to step up, their bowlers to step up and really help Bumrah and Coetzee, because if they (MI) continue the way they are , they might drop more points again.” Moody also felt that Suryakumar Yadav will have to play the entire league to regain fitness after returning from an ankle injury and hernia surgery.

‘Mr 360 degrees’ smashed a 53-ball 78 on Thursday as he guided MI to 192. With the middle-order batsman vital to India’s T20 World Cup chances in the West Indies and the US, Moody felt that the cricketer need to get your peak fitness back.

“It’s important he slowly gets back to full fitness, he needs to play all 40 overs and that would be great. beyond the IPL It was a great innings today (from him).

Steyn praised PBSK batsman Ashutosh Sharma for the shot he employed against Bumrah, something that has not been used against India very often.

“I mean, the IPL never stops disappointing us with close games and creating new heroes… Bumrah bowls a no ball, and the next thing is Ashutosh comes down and takes that sweep that goes for six.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)