Former India player Aakash Chopra has said that Hardik Pandya’s poor form with the bat in the IPL 2025 Qualifier 2 potentially left the Mumbai Indians (MI) with a slightly below-par total. He also added that the MI skipper should have used himself more with the ball as well. However, Hardik managed only 15 runs off 13 balls as the MI set the PBKS a 204-run target in the penultimate game of IPL 2025.

Reflecting on this in a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Hardik Pandya had to fire a bit more. In the end, he couldn’t fire much with the bat and, in my opinion, he should have bowled more as well. Reece Topley shouldn’t have been given that over. One of Mitchell Santner, Ashwani Kumar and Trent Boult, or he himself should have bowled that over.”

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“He bowled only two overs, two runs in the first over, and 17 runs went in the second over for sure, but he took Josh Inglis’ wicket, and almost Nehal Wadhera’s wicket. In batting also, I felt he needed to score more runs because 15 runs were removed because of him getting out. Naman Dhir was alone in the last over, and Raj Angad Bawa was with him. The last overs did not turn out the way they wanted them to be,” he shared.

While talking about the start of MI’s innings in the IPL 2025 Qualifier 2, Aakash Chopra applauded Jonny Bairstow (38 off 24) for batting aggressively despite Rohit Sharma’s (8 off 7) early dismissal.

“Rohit Sharma got a life once again, but then Rohit Sharma gets out. Jonny Bairstow didn’t stop after Rohit Sharma got out. He has played only two knocks and has played powerfully. Very good acquisition. Mumbai might want to retain him for the next year, but they won’t be able to do so as he came after the suspension. However, I feel Jonny Bairstow has given the audition for next year now itself because he was batting incredibly well. Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav played very well until they were there. However, wickets fell together – Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma in two overs,” Aakash Chopra concluded.