Virender Sehwag Faces Severe Backlash For Criticizing Hardik Pandya's Captaincy During PBKS vs MI IPL 2025 Clash

IPL 2025: Punjab Kings defeated five-time Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians in the second-last league stage game. Punjab, with their stellar seven-wicket win over Hardik Pandya's Mumbai Indians, have stormed into Qualifier 1 and have solidified their position to win their maiden IPL title. Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, will now have to play the IPL 2025 Eliminator, which always is a great threat to a team's chance of winning the coveted IPL silverware.

Virender Sehwag Called Out For Criticizing Hardik Pandya

Mumbai Indians not being able to defend a target might come as a surprise to many. They have great economical bowlers in their side who have the innate capability of bamboozling the batters, but Punjab Kings still managed to make light work out of them. Punjab's victory will not hurt Mumbai as much as the kind of hammering they received in the PBKS vs MI clash will.

Former India player and Punjab Kings' Head Coach's predecessor Virender Sehwag's connection to Punjab isn't relevant to the context, hence removing, Virender Sehwag was not quite impressed with Hardik Pandya's tactics during the Mumbai Indians vs Punjab Kings clash, and he made his point and analysis extremely clear while speaking about the match. 'Deepak Chahar bowled two overs even after nursing his injury. This was the same thing I pointed out while I was calling the game. He gave away 28 runs in those two overs, which shifted the momentum towards Punjab. Hardik could've very well used Bumrah in that phase,' said Sehwag.

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Sehwag's criticism of Hardik Pandya hasn't gone down too well with the fans, who have called him out for being biased. One of the users also called him out and questioned his logic of not giving Deepak Chahar the ball after he bowled a maiden.

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Bowlers Let Mumbai Indians Down In Crucial PBKS Clash

A strong bowling lineup, which has the likes of Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell Santner, and Hardik Pandya, was always expected to defend 184 odd runs against a Punjab Kings batting that features four non-capped Indian players (Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Nehal Wadhera, and Shashank Singh).

But somehow all the Mumbai Indians bowlers, apart from Jasprit Bumrah, conceded runs at an excess of 9 per over, and it hurt their chances of sealing a berth in Qualifier 1.