‘Tu toh chaar team bna ke trophies jeetne waala tha?’ – Fans troll Hardik Pandya for his ‘Young team will make mistakes’ remark following India’s defeat to West Indies in 1st T20I

Team India suffered a narrow four-run loss to West Indies in the first T20I of the five-match series on Thursday at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad. India picked a young squad as the management rested senior players to maintain their workload. However, chasing a modest total of 150 on a difficult track to bat on, the future stars of the Men in Blue were unable to live up to expectations as the hosts took a 1-0 lead.

Meanwhile, captain Hardik Pandya defended his young side, stating that they are bound to make mistakes that will help them improve as a group in the future. “We were right in the chase and quite comfortable there. We made some errors which costed us the game which is fine. A young team will make mistakes. It will also help us to improve in the future. We will grow together,” the all-rounder said.

Tilak Varma’s confident knock saved India from more embarrassment

Batting first after winning the toss, Windies got off to a blistering start from Brandon King (28 off 19). Nicholas Pooran’s 34-ball 41 and captain Rovman Powell’s 48 off 32 balls helped them to post a competitive first innings score. In reply, India lost both Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill cheaply inside the powerplay. Debutant Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav then stitched a 39-run partnership before the latter’s dismissal in the 10th over, leaving India at 67-3.

Varma played a confident knock (39 off 22) but his lone fight wasn’t enough to take India to the finish line. The Mumbai Indians middle order batter was dismissed in the 11th over, resulting in a batting collapse. India kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually fell four runs short. In the post-match presentation, Pandya said that the continuous fall of wickets hampered their run chase.

“In T20 cricket, if you lose wickets, it becomes difficult to chase down any total, that’s exactly what happened. A couple of hits can change the momentum towards you. When we lost a couple of wickets, that halted our chase,” the 29-year-old said.

Here’s how fans reacted to Hardik Pandya’s statements after India’s loss in the first T20 against West Indies:

https://twitter.com/MainHoonSultan7/status/1687171450606866433

https://twitter.com/mahesh_panyam/status/1687171520651743232

now he need to say something bla bla bla…

— Yaseen A'Baji (@YaseenABaji1) August 4, 2023

And the best batter of the match from India was the one making his debut

— Malik Irfan (@urfimalik) August 4, 2023

Looking for the future from last 14 years . What about your performance. You are not a youngster

— Lalatendu Rout (@Littu85) August 3, 2023

Yea ,you Surya Kumar,sanju ,axar are 30 year youngsters ,you'll learn in a few years ,no need to hurry

— U M A R (@Agrumpycomedian) August 3, 2023

https://twitter.com/ZainHas45611324/status/1687170966995046401

Konsa future ki baat kar rha ye? BC 2 mahine baad World Cup hai aur inko future ki pari hai.

— Soumya (@notionhead) August 4, 2023