Dejected Hardik Pandya admitted that the poor quality of cricket played by Mumbai Indians (MI) was the main reason why they finished second last at the 2024 IPL, in three years.
It was also last finish for them in 2022.
Pandya’s return to MI fold was highly anticipated but under his captaincy, team could only win just four out of fourteen games.
Speaking on this season, Pandya stated that their performance did not meet their expectations, which eventually limited their chances of making a valuable contribution to the competition.
“It wasn’t easy. We didn’t play good cricket and ended up paying it,” said Pandya after MI went down by 18 runs against Lucknow Super Giants in Mumbai.
“This is a professional world. You have to come out and give your best all the time. But yes, as a team we couldn’t play quality or smart cricket.”
He will probably take some time out when dust settles down for him to analyze what went wrong.
“We can’t say what went wrong yet because it is too early. The whole of us messed up during the season. We can pass this game as another one (that went wrong).”
LSG skipper KL Rahul whose team also finished out of play-off zone felt similarly letdown.
“I am really disappointed with that. I thought at the start of the season we had a very strong season and most bases covered. A few injuries happen but you know who left dented us a bit,” Rahul said obviously targeting Mayank Yadav country’s fastest bowler
“He added; “We didn’t play well enough collectively and we couldn’t come together as much as we wanted to. Today was the kind of game we wanted to play more when the bowlers and batters both come together”
Nevertheless, Rahul who is not part of Indian T20 World Cup squad remained non-committal on whether he would bat in middle-order in the coming days.
“Maybe, may be not, there’s not much T20 cricket coming up [for me] now,” he said when asked whether he will think about batting in middle order.
“I will think about what I need to do to get back into the side and where I stand, that is my primary concern right now,” he added.
