All-rounder Hardik Pandya will return to action with the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), where he will lead Mumbai Indians. After having two outstanding years with Gujarat Titans, Hardik will return to the franchise, with whom he started his IPL journey back in 2015. He not only returned to MI but also dethroned Rohit Sharma to don the captain's hat. Currently out of action due to a knee injury, the all-rounder recently got a moment to relive his journey with the five-time champions.
Hardik appeared on Star Sports show, 'Star Nahi Far', where the crowd took part in a quiz, related to his stats with MI. They were asked about Hardik's total number of half-centuries scored in the tournament.
Someone from crowd shouted, "10". Hearing this, Hardik got surprised and said, "I have that many? Wow."
Later, the all-rounder was asked to pick his favourite half-century. Suddenly, someone from the crowd screamed something which was not audible, to which Hardik replied, "I don't like the innings where we lost."
After this, another person from the crowd mentioned his 21-ball 60-run knock against Rajasthan Royals from IPL 2020, but this also got rejected by Hardik.
"We lost that too. I don't believe in 50s or 100s. Stats are just numbers; it's a waste of time," said Hardik.
After the axing of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from the BCCI central contract, due to non-participation in domestic cricket, former India batter Irfan Pathan took Hardik's name and urged the board to treat all the players equally.
"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!" wrote former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan on X, formerly Twitter.
