DC vs MI: Irfan Pathan launches brutal attack on Hardik Pandya, urges BCCI to stop giving all-rounder priority

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan feels that the BCCI should no longer give importance to senior all-rounder Hardik Pandya as he has received thus far. 

Irfan Pathan made this admission while speaking in Star Sports' press conference room show. Therein, the 2007 T20 World Cup winner absolutely bashed Hardik Pandya for being a self-proclaimed important player of the Indian national team. Pandya, who is currently captaining the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024, hasn't played a single game for India since the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.  

Irfan Pathan says Hardik Pandya didn't help India win the WC

Hardik Pandya had just rolled his feet over the ball during India's league stage CWC 2023 match against Bangladesh. After undergoing scans, the Baroda-based cricketer was ruled out of the entire tournament with India eventually losing the tournament in the final against Australia. 

Since then, Hardik Pandya's recovery hasn't happened the way he and the Indian team management would have expected. Pandya was supposed to be back in time for India's all-format tour of South Africa but he couldn't. The right-hand batter and bowler also failed to be there for the Men in Blue during their T20I series against Afghanistan. 

So with all that in mind, Irfan Pathan claimed that Hardik Pandya needs to put much more impact with his game for team India if he thinks he is indispensable. Pathan also said that we have only heard about Pandya's potential and we have not actually witnessed it. 

"What I feel about Hardik Pandya is that Indian cricket needs to make it clear… they should not give him that much priority as they have given him so far, because we still haven’t won the World Cup. If you think you are a primary all-rounder, you need to make that kind of an impact at the international level."

"As far as the all-rounder spot is concerned he hasn’t made that impact at the international level, we are only thinking about the potential. We are getting confused between the IPL performances and the international performances. That’s a big difference," Irfan Pathan said via Star Sports, as quoted by Indian Express. 

Pathan suggests Pandya to play throughout the year for India 

One of the key reasons behind Hardik Pandya's criticism is that he doesn't play all the formats for Team India and neither does he play domestic cricket. Thus he is not playing competitive cricket for an entire season and that's something that Irfan Pathan feels Pandya should start doing. 

Pathan gave the example of Australia, a team that doesn't groom one superstar but 11 different superstars who help them win major ICC tournaments. The former all-rounder claimed that if India wants the same, then they must adopt the Aussie mindset. 

"First of all, Hardik needs to play throughout the full year. He cannot pick and choose. Indian cricket needs to stop doing that. Stop giving preferences to individuals. What Australia has been doing for many years is that they are actually preferring the team game. Making everyone a superstar. Not one superstar, everybody is a superstar in the squad," Pathan concluded.