Hardik Pandya's vice-captaincy appointment was challenged by former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan when India announced its squad for the 2024 edition of the T20 ICC T20 World Cup. Irfan never shied away from speaking his mind as the cricket pundit launched several attacks on the underfire all-rounder of the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the entire season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Fast forwarding the clock to the present, Hardik has completed his redemption. After facing boos, heckles and all sorts of negativity in the build-up to the T20 World Cup, Pandya bounced back by propelling India to its second ICC World T20 crown in the Caribbean. The star all-rounder defended 16 runs in the final over of the summit clash against South Africa as Rohit Sharma and Co. were crowned World Champions for the second time in the shortest format.

In a conversation with Star Sports after the T20 World Cup, Irfan said that he castigated Hardik because his performances were not up to the mark in the IPL 2024. "It's been a special journey for Hardik Pandya. Coming back from all the criticism, I was actually the one who criticized him because he was not performing during the IPL time. He was making a lot of mistakes at that time," Irfan said.

Hardik replaced Rohit as Mumbai Indians skipper for IPL 2024. His appointment angered the MI fans as the Mumbai skipper was booed incessantly in the cash-rich league stage. Under Pandya's leadership, MI became the first team to bow out of the playoff race in the IPL 2024. "From there to coming back and winning the World Cup has been special. He showed the character, he performed. With Rohit Sharma, with Jasprit Bumrah, the kind of performance he did to make a difference to the Indian cricket team has been so special," Pathan added.

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