Hardik Pandya gives brutal reply to Michael Vaughan’s ‘India underperformers’ remark

Recently, India’s dream of winning a World Championship title was shattered as they lost the semis of the 20-20 World Cup 2022. They lost to eventual title winners, England by 10 wickets and four overs to spare. After the game, a lot of former players from India and the world nitpicked the Men In Blue’s shortcomings in the tournament.

Meanwhile, after India lost their semifinal game, former England skipper Michael Vaughan criticized the team. He had said that the Men In Blue are the most underperforming team in World Cups after the 2011 glory. The 2005 Ashes-winning skipper had expressed his surprise over India’s way of playing T20I cricket. He also said that the team has the right players for the format but not the right mindset.

“India are the most underperforming white-ball team in history. I am just staggered by how they play T20 cricket for the talent they have. They have the players, but just do not have the right process in place. They have to go for it. Why do they give the opposition bowlers the first five overs to bed in?” Vaughan wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph

I don’t think we need to prove anything: Hardik Pandya

In reply to Vaughan’s comments, India all-rounder Hardik Pandya started by saying that the team respects other’s opinions. However, he added that the team doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone

“Obviously when you don’t do well, people will have their opinion, which we respect. I understand people have different points of view. Being at the international level, I don’t think we need to prove anything to anyone. It’s a sport, you keep trying to get better and eventually when the result is supposed to happen it will happen. There are things we need to work on, going forward we will rectify and work on it,” Hardik said on Wednesday.

Notably, Pandya is set to lead the T20I team during the three-match series against New Zealand, starting on November 18.