'No one had heard about him before': Ravi Shastri feels Mumbai Indians made big mistake by not retaining Hardik Pandya

Having spent seven seasons at Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya, who won three IPL titles with the franchise, was not retained for the 2022 season.

With Mumbai Indians going down for the fifth time in this season, incurring one of their worst possible start to an Indian Premier League (IPL) season, questions have been raised on their auction strategy at the mega event in February. Di Mumbai get it wrong? Most veteran cricketers have slammed it calling it “poor” and “shocking”, and the latest joinee to the bandwagon is former India head coach Ravi Shastri, who feels Mumbai made a big mistake by not retaining Hardik Pandya.

Ravi Shastri; Hardik Pandya

Back in 2015, Mumbai had roped in an uncapped player from Baroda, who slowly became an integral member of the team that won the IPL title that same year and in 2019 and 2020. However, he was not retained for the 2022 season as Mumbai stuck with Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard and Jasprit Bumrah.

Mumbai did not even get the chance to place a bid to buy him back as Hardik was picked by Gujarat Titans as one of their three draft choices and late named their skipper.

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“I was really surprised you know, when you look at Mumbai Indians, you know the way they have scouted the domestic players in the past, they have done extremely well. Now, these are are boys from their stable. The Pandya brothers, no one had heard about them. No one had heard about Bumrah, you know, or Hardik, or Krunal. They brought them into the IPL, so I was really surprised that having really seen them grow and reach their peak, that they are allowed to go,” he said.

Hardik is presently the second-highest run-getter in IPL 2022 with 228 runs in five innings with two half-century scores. He has also picked four wickets at an economy rate of 7.56.