Veteran South Africa pacer Dale Steyn has fired indirect shots at Hardik Pandya for his diplomatic reactions after Mumbai Indians' poor performances this season. Under Hardik's leadership, MI have failed to make any statement and won just three matches out of eight. They are lagging in the playoffs race and are currently placed at the seventh spot on the points table. Hardik, who took over charge from Rohit Sharma ahead of this season, has been facing the heat as he is failing to inspire his team thus far. His performance also saw a major dip this season and scored 151 runs in 8 matches and claimed just 4 wickets.

Mumbai suffered their fifth defeat of the season on Monday night as Rajasthan Royals hammered them with a 9-wicket win at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.

Steyn took to Twitter to slam the players for not speaking their minds honestly after the matches. He took indirect shots at Pandya for constantly smiling in post-match talk despite the results not going in their favour.

"I really look forward to the day players might say what’s honestly on their mind. Instead we some how dumbed ourselves and our minds into saying the usual safe thing, lose the next game, smile and then repeat that nonsense again," Steyn said after the RR vs MI match on Twitter.

Steyn also mentioned Quinton de Kock's name in his tweet who was known for speaking his heart out after every match,"PS. Qdk, I love you."

Meanwhile, it was a collective failure from MI on Monday night as the Royals outclassed them in all three departments. Pandya himself scored 10 off 10 balls and then conceded 21 off his two overs.

However, Pandya was too diplomatic once again after the match and once again talked about learning from the game and the mistakes.

"Overall, we did not put the right foot on the park and eventually they outplayed us. After the game, it's not the right time to go to the players, everyone is professional, they know their roles. What we can do is learn from this game and the mistakes which we have made, rectify it and make sure that we don't make it. Progression is very important," Pandya said.

Earlier, former England captain Kevin Pietersen also pointed that Hardik is faking by smiling too much at the toss and during the fielding as the boos from the fans are affecting him.

"I actually think with Hardik Pandya everything away from the game is affecting him so much. He's smiling too much when he does the toss, he's trying to act like he's so happy. He's not happy," Pietersen said on Star Sports.

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