Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and India spinner Harbhajan Singh has opined that Mumbai Indians (MI) made a mistake by not playing Afghanistan’s Allah Ghazanfar in their IPL 2026 game against Delhi Capitals (DC). The match was played on Saturday, April 4, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Sent into bat, MI posted 162/6, with Suryakumar Yadav top-scoring with 51 off 36 balls. In response, Sameer Rizvi continued his fine form, scoring 90 off 51 deliveries to help DC win the match by six wickets with 11 balls to spare.
On April 5, talking about the game on his YouTube channel, Harbhajan noted that MI erred by playing Corbin Bosch in place of Hardik Pandya, who missed the game due to being unwell. The 45-year-old pointed out that on the Delhi pitch, Ghazanfar should have been included.
He acknowledged that Ghazanfar had conceded runs in the franchise’s opening game at Wankhede, but emphasized that Mumbai must remember they picked him for his wicket-taking abilities. He said:
“Mumbai Indians made a mistake in this match. They included Bosch in this match because Hardik Pandya was not available for this game. The best thing could have been to play Allah Ghazanfar on this pitch, where there was a bit more turn, because Santner is a bowler who can restrict scoring, and anyone who tries to hit him will get out.
“But Allah Ghazanfar is the kind of bowler who doesn’t give singles easily. Forget what happened in the last match. He gave runs in Mumbai, but many bowlers give runs. Don’t forget you picked him for his wicket-taking abilities, and if he had played in Delhi, the results could have been different,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bosch remained unbeaten on 11 off four balls but struggled with the ball, finishing with figures of 1/39 in 3.1 overs.
“Completely destroyed Mumbai’s innings” – Harbhajan Singh’s huge remark on MI’s failure to score big against DC
In the same video, Harbhajan Singh pointed out that Mumbai scores heavily at Wankhede because of the red soil pitch, but here in Delhi, the black soil pitch offered some spin, which troubled the visitors’ batters. He also praised DC’s Axar Patel and Mukesh Kumar for their bowling. He said:
“On their home ground, that bounce, the red soil bounce, makes batting very easy, and you get lots of boundaries. Here, you have to put in a bit more effort. This is black soil; the ball tends to skid and stays a bit low, and today, there was a bit of spin too, which completely destroyed Mumbai’s innings. 162 runs, in the context of this format nowadays, that’s nothing.I want to give some praise to the bowlers. Axar Patel, in his four overs, gave away only 22 runs and captained very well. I also want to praise Mukesh for the way he bowled.”
Axar was brilliant, finishing with figures of 1/22 in four overs, while Mukesh claimed 2/26 in three overs.
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Edited by Dev Sharma