Mumbai Indians were knocked out of the Indian Premier League 2025 title race by Punjab Kings in the Qualifier 2 of the tournament on June 1. Despite being a star-studded side, the MI could not perform as a unit on the night it mattered, and had to make way for PBKS, who will now be facing Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the grand finale on June 3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
Reflecting on the same, former cricketer Irfan Pathan took to his social media, sharing his disbelief over the disappointing exit of the Hardik Pandya-led side from the 2025 edition of the cash-rich tournament. Irfan mentioned a plethora of match-winners in the MI squad, and despite being so power-packed, the unit, somehow failed to make it count this time round.
“Bumrah – number 1, Surya – number 1 T20 batter, Rohit Sharma – 5 trophies as captain, Hardik – premier all-rounder, Santner – best left-arm spinner, Trent Boult – highest 1st-over wicket-taker,” wrote Irfan on X. Pathan wrote how MI had a lot of match-winners in their side and yet could not win their sixth title.
The 2007 T20 World Cup winner added that MI’s fans would be disappointed by the performance of the five-time champions. He felt the management would look deeply into the things and realize that not all teams in the world would get as many match-winners on their team at the same time.
“Despite having so many match-winners, still not able to win the IPL trophy. Mumbai fans must be very disappointed. MI will surely look into things deeply — you don’t get these kinds of match-winners in many T20 teams,” added Pathan, as MI lost to PBKS in Qualifier 2 and bowed out of the 18th edition of the league.
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2.7KAs mentioned by Irfan, MI indeed had a lot of match-winners. Seasoned veteran Rohit Sharma stepped up in the Eliminator and won the Player of the Match award after MI knocked GT out of the season. Bumrah did what he does every season – be a nearly unplayable bowler. Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner bowled exceptionally well too, while Hardik did a fairly good job as a leader and an all-rounder.
Did Hardik make mistake by sidelining Rohit in Q2?
Suryakumar, on the other hand, was without a doubt one of the best batters of the season, and topped the run-scoring charts for the franchise, not just in this season, but overall as well, with 717 runs at a stupendous average of 65.18 and a strike-rate of 167.91. He also became the first ever Mumbai Indians batter to aggregate 700-plus runs in a season.
