‘Sack Hardik Pandya' trended on Twitter after the India captain left Prithvi Shaw on the bench for the second T20I against New Zealand in Lucknow on Sunday.

Team India was beaten by the Kiwis in the series opener in Ranchi on Friday and fans were expecting a few changes in the playing XI for the second game at the Ekana Stadium in the Uttar Pradesh capital.

But the team management, including skipper Hardik Pandya and head coach Rahul Dravid, earned the ire of fans after they snubbed Prithvi Shaw again.

“Umran misses out, Yuzi comes in. The KulCha is back, a lot of people wanted to see, they are wicket-takers. The way Washi is playing, we've got three proper spinners who can squeeze if required,” Hardik Pandya said at the toss.

“We were also thinking to bat first but bowling is also fine. This is a new team, but we have spoken about getting into the challenge and having to do difficult things. It can't difficult than this in a bilateral series, losing the first game and then two games on the line. Looking forward to this game. We are going to make mistakes and learn from them. It's important they come out here and enjoy the sport. We all should remember that we started playing this sport to enjoy, so I just want to pass that message to the team,” Hardik Pandya added.

However, Hardik Pandya's statement regarding Prithvi Shaw's non-inclusion in the starting line-up didn't go well with the Indian cricket admirers, who blasted him for his decision on social media.

Prithvi Shaw recently made his return to the India squad after remaining on the sidelines since 2021, including serving a doping ban for 12 months. His inclusion in the squad was expected after he lit the domestic circuit with his brilliant performances, highlighted by the 363 runs he scored in the 2022 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

The fans also hit out at Hardik Pandya for his decision to bowl four overs in the second T20I against New Zealand.

Hardik Pandya's move to persist with his fast bowling baffled several Team India supporters as the pitch at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow was a slow-turner and even part-time spinners were gripping the ball by a fair deal.

Against this backdrop, Hardik Pandya's tactic of handing Yuzvendra Chahal the ball for only two overs, especially when the latter had given the Men in Blue their first breakthrough with the wicket of Finn Allen in the fourth over, wasn’t appreciated. Moreover, Yuzvendra Chahal was the most economical bowler in the clash, going for only four runs in his two overs.

Despite such outstanding figures, Hardik Pandya chose to complete his four overs and didn't bring Yuzvendra Chahal back for a second spell.

Indian cricket team's admirers even criticized Hardik Pandya for introducing Arshdeep Singh in the 18th over of the New Zealand innings.

The match in Uttar Pradesh turned out to be a low-scoring thriller. Batting first New Zealand put 100 runs on the board, with every Indian bowler barring Shivam Mavi picking up at least one wicket.

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In reply, India managed to finish off the game on the penultimate delivery with Suryakumar Yadav hitting the winning boundary.

After the match, Hardik Pandya panned the pitch, calling it a “shocker of a wicket”.

He added that while there was a tense atmosphere outside, he and his players were confident about coming out on top in the match.

“I always believed we will finish the game,” Hardik Pandya said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “It went quite deep, but that is how it is. These kind of games, it is important to not panic. Rather than taking risks, we rotated the strike. having said that, this is a shocker of a pitch. We need to make sure we have better pitches. Even 120 would have been a winning total here. We kept to our plans, we made sure they will not rotate the strike, and the wickets kept falling. Dew didn't play much of a role because if you see they were able to spin the ball more than us. It was a shocker of a wicket. The ball was flying for even the fast bowlers.”

Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav whose unbeaten 26 off 31 balls ended deciding the result of the game claimed that the pitch was extremely tough to bat on. But once Washington Sundar was run-out after a horrible mix-up with him, he decided to stick around till the end.

“A different version of SKY today,” Suryakumar Yadav said. “Adapting to the situation was very important. After losing Washy, I had to make sure I batted till the end. It was my mistake, I didn't see where the ball went. Of course it was a challenging wicket, but you have to be able to adapt. We just needed one hit in the end, and it was very important to calm ourselves down. Before I got the winning runs, Hardik came up to me and told me you will hit the winning runs this ball. That gave me a lot of confidence.”