'Let your ego be bigger' - Twitter users slam Hardik Pandya for ignoring Rohit Sharma's contribution to his career

With the first-choice players gearing to play against England, Hardik Pandya is leading the Indian team in the ongoing Ireland tour. He had a dream start to his captaincy debut as the Men In Blue convincingly beat the hosts. Ahead of the game, Pandya had said that he has learned a lot of captaincy skills from former skippers, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni.

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However, he also maintained that he wants to be natural as a leader.

"I have taken lots of things from Kohli and Dhoni - at the same time, I wanted to be natural as a captain - I like to (be) practical and take decisions that way,” the all-rounder said in a pre-match press conference.

Apparently, this statement has angered the fans as they believe that the Gujarat player sidelined Rohit Sharma. The 28-year-old first played in the Indian T20 League in 2015 under Sharma for Mumbai. Within a year, he made his T20I debut and went on to play in the 20-20 World Cup.

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Since then, he became an integral part of the national team till his back injury in 2019. The injury ruled him out for more than a year and could only make his comeback in the Indian T20 League 2022. This year, he became in Indian T20 League skipper of the franchise from his home state. The right-hand batter led the team to its maiden title in their debut season.

Meanwhile, the Indian team is set to play their last T20I game if the Ireland tour on June 28. They won the first game and will be looking to clean sweep the Andrew Balbirnie-led side. This will be Pandya's last game as captain although he might still lead team in the future. After this, the Indian fans will see their senior locking horns with England in an all-format series.

The series will start with the postponed fifth Test, followed by a warm-up games against Derbyshire and Northampton before the three-match T20I series. The series will end with a three-match ODI series.

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This is how Twitter reacted

Never showing gratitude to the person who backed you at the earliest stage of your career and disrespecting him will definitely hit you hard hardik! Shame on you for behaving like this today! https://t.co/a6ACK3NZ7L

— Priya45✨ (@alwaysrohit45) June 26, 2022

Feels sad when you don't mention the Captain under whom u performed the best, u made your name infact ur records for india are just 🤢

Let your ego be bigger👍🏻
I know you are the best ever Indian AR & I rate you very highly, but you lost all the respect 💔😪

-X HP die-heart Fan

— SiDdHi💙 (@StAn_45_) June 25, 2022

Thank God MI didn't retained him🙏 https://t.co/7Zx1wV2iz1

— RuhᎥ. (@rohitian___45) June 25, 2022

Rohit ki baat nhi boli and kiran more sir k baare me bhi nhi jisne scout kia tha hardik from now you are not the same to me 🤒🤒 https://t.co/8QJrHnICrv

— Soumyadip Dutta (@Soumyad87772934) June 25, 2022

"Hardik Pandya's contribution to MI will never be forgotten" was what Rohit Sharma said when I asked him about Hardik during IPL.

Maybe whatever Hardik said is been taken out of context. But if there's even one percent of ignorance on purpose, it's just sad. #CricketTwitter

— Anuj Prabhu 🇮🇳 (@APTalksCricket) June 26, 2022

Hardik Pandya naming Kohli and Dhoni in every fkin' interview and ignoring Rohit, whom he praised a lot an year ago...looks like guy is craving for some fans and attention. He is doing in intentionally 💯

— Mohit (@MohitRohitian) June 26, 2022

Rohit where? Clear Rift

— Swetaa (@SwetaTweets8) June 25, 2022

He is not even talking about rohit sharma 🤔🤔🤔

Something happened when he was not retained

— RAJVEER SINGH (@Sawai807) June 25, 2022

Maybe he think Rohit had 0 knowledge in captaincy

— Raj StranGer ThiNgs 👽 (@Blackpanth96) June 25, 2022

0 cares about chapri landya👎

— SUPERHIT SHARMA (@raghav45_) June 25, 2022