In the tournament’s second qualifier on June 1, Punjab Kings defeated the Mumbai Indians in the race for the Indian Premier League 2025 championship. PBKS, who will now play Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the grand finals on June 3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, had to take the pitch because the MI, although having a star-studded squad, were unable to execute as a cohesive one on the night that mattered.
Former cricket player Irfan Pathan reflected on the same thing on social media, expressing his shock at the Hardik Pandya-led team’s dismal elimination from the lucrative competition in 2025. Irfan remarked that the MI squad had many match-winners, but despite their strength, they just didn’t make an impression this time.
“Bumrah – number 1, Surya – number 1 T20 batter, Rohit Sharma – 5 trophies as captain, Hardik – premier all-rounder, Santner – best left-arm spinner, Trent Boult – highest 1st-over wicket-taker,” Irfan said on X. Pathan described how MI failed to win their sixth championship despite having a number of match-winners on their team.
The winner of the 2007 T20 World Cup went on to say that the five-time winners’ performance would disappoint MI’s supporters. He believed that after careful consideration, the management would come to the conclusion that not every team in the world would have as many game-winning players on their roster at once.
Mumbai Indians supporters must be devastated.
“We are still unable to win the IPL trophy even with so many match-winners. After Mumbai Indians fell to PBKS in Qualifier 2 and was eliminated from the 18th league edition, Pathan continued, “Mumbai Indians will definitely look into things thoroughly — you don’t get these kinds of match-winners in many T20 teams.”
Bumrah – number 1
Surya – number 1 T20 batter
Rohit Sharma – 5 trophies as captain
Hardik – premier all-rounder
Santner – best left-arm spinner
Trent Boult – highest 1st-over wicket-takerDespite having so many match-winners, still not able to win the IPL trophy. Mumbai fans…
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) June 1, 2025
MI did have a bunch of match-winners, as Irfan said. After MI eliminated GT from the season, seasoned veteran Rohit Sharma onto the pitch in the Eliminator and was named Player of the Match. As he does each season, Bumrah was a bowler who was practically unplayable. Hardik performed admirably as an all-rounder and skipper, and Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner bowled remarkably effectively as well.
With 717 runs at an incredible average of 65.18 and a strike-rate of 167.91, Suryakumar, on the other hand, was unquestionably one of the best batters of the season and led the team’s run-scoring statistics both this season and overall. Additionally, he became the first batter in Mumbai Indians history to reach 700 runs or more in a season.