"I would never expect him to tell us the names" - Anil Kumble takes a cheeky dig at Hardik Pandya's toss antics during GT vs MI IPL 2024 clash

The start of Hardik Pandya’s captaincy stint with the Mumbai Indians (MI) wasn’t ideal as they lost to his former team Gujarat Titans (GT) on Sunday, March 24 by six runs. Having led GT to two back-to-back finals in 2022 and 2023, Pandya moved back to MI, with whom he started his IPL career.

With the high-profile trade between GT and MI ahead of this year’s tournament came a truckload of criticism from fans and experts. Pandya’s move was followed by him being handed over the team’s captaincy reins from Rohit Sharma, who led the side to five titles.

Walking into his former home ground, the Narendra Modi Stadium, for the toss against GT, Hardik Pandya dubbed the pitch as a “decent track which might get better of dew arrives”. When Ravi Shastri asked him the team combination for the contest, Pandya did not name a single player.

Captains usually name the four overseas players of their XI, but Pandya bluntly said:

“We have four quicks, three spinners and seven batters. Making sure all the departments are looked after.”

JioCinema expert Anil Kumble did not take Pandya’s reply well. Speaking with presenter Suhail Chandhok and AB de Villiers, Kumble took a jibe at Pandya, leaving the former Proteas player and the presenter in splits. He said:

“I would never expect Hardik to tell us the names as well. Four fast bowlers, three spinners, 11 fielders, we all know that. Who are those?”

Here’s the video of the moment:

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“I think we lost little bit of momentum there” - Hardik Pandya after MI endure a hard-fought loss against GT

The fifth match of the IPL 2024 between GT and MI turned out to be a final-over thriller, as the home side clinched a six-run victory. With that, MI continued their unwanted tradition of losing the season’s opening game, losing their 12th opener in a row.

Speaking on the loss after the match, Hardik Pandya showed faith in his team and backed the players to do well in the games to come.

“We backed ourselves to chase those 42 runs but it was one of those days when we see the score quite less compared to what it could have been in five overs, I think we lost little bit of momentum there. It feels good to be back because this is one stadium where you can enjoy and feel the atmosphere quite lively and obviously the crowd was full and they got a good game as well,” Pandya said.