Shardul Thakur: Impact sub without impact as Mumbai Indians’ call raises questions

Mumbai Indians’ puzzling usage of Shardul Thakur arsenic an Impact Sub has triggered a question of instrumentality disapproval aft the all-rounder, who was introduced successful the seventh implicit of the MI vs SRH fixture successful IPL 2026, ended up not bowling a azygous transportation - contempt MI bowlers enduring a torrid time with the shot astatine the Wankhede.The determination rapidly became 1 of the biggest talking points from the match, with fans questioning the logic down bringing successful a frontline seam-bowling all-rounder and past not utilising him astatine all.After posting 243 connected the board, MI were successful for a rude daze arsenic Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head raced to 115/0 successful conscionable 7 overs. MI, who made a big of changes to their playing XI, decided to sub retired wicketkeeper-batter Robin Minz successful favour of Thakur, hoping to interruption the concern and summation an other bowling cushion.But Thakur ended up not getting a vessel arsenic SRH cantered location with a grounds pursuit with implicit an implicit to spare. On a time erstwhile each MI bowler was taken to the cleaners, it was a baffling determination not to manus the shot to Thakur to stem the travel of runs from SRH batters.Trent Boult conceded 41 runs successful his 4 overs, portion Jasprit Bumrah endured an unforgettable day, returning figures of 4-0-54-0. Allah Ghazanfar, contempt picking up 2 wickets, besides leaked runs, giving distant 51 successful his 4 overs, portion Ashwani Kumar returned figures of 2-0-41-0.

Hardik Pandya went astatine an system of 10.63, portion Will Jacks’ solitary implicit outgo 19 runs. Yet, determination was nary motion of Thakur, who has 113 wickets from 112 matches successful the IPL and is mostly known arsenic a partnership-breaker.Here’s however societal media reacted to the bizarre decision:

SRH demolish MI astatine Wankhede

MI bowlers were taken isolated by SRH batters, with nary conceding little than 10 runs per over. Notably, the ever-reliable Jasprit Bumrah returned figures of 0/54 successful 4 overs.Mumbai Indians, powered by a 55-ball unbeaten 123 from Ryan Rickelton, posted 243/5 successful 20 overs aft electing to bat first. However, Sunrisers Hyderabad, led by Travis Head (76 disconnected 30 balls), Heinrich Klaasen (65* disconnected 30), Abhishek Sharma (45 disconnected 24) and Salil Arora (30* disconnected 10), chased down the people with 8 balls to spare.