Hardik Pandya’s appointment as Mumbai Indians’ new skipper, replacing Rohit Sharma, didn’t reap any rewards, at least considering this season, as they became the first team to get knocked out of IPL 2024. With a series of poor performances despite having the best players for each position, MI’s inability to click together is disappointing. Meanwhile, former RCB great AB de Villiers pinpointed where the problem lies.
Addressing his concerns regarding Mumbai’s downfall this season under the new leader, de Villiers said Pandya’s ego-driven captaincy style was successful at Gujarat Titans, where he even won the IPL trophy in his first season as the GT skipper, but it’s not going to produce the same results at MI.
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With several reports of a rift inside the MI dressing room already doing the rounds, AB de Villiers’ latest remarks help everyone connect the dots.
Explaining what difference it makes, de Villiers said younger players might follow that kind of leadership, but with so many seniors around, much like at MI, a cool and calm approach works better.
“The captaincy style of Hardik Pandya is quite bravado. It’s ego-driven in a way, chest out. I don’t think how he walks on the field is always genuine, but he has decided that is his way of captaincy.
“Almost like MS. Cool, calm, collective, always got your chest out. But when you play with a lot of experienced players, guys who have been around for ages… they don’t buy into that.
“It worked at GT, where it was a younger team. Sometimes, inexperienced players love to follow that kind of leadership,” de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.
Pandya’s style led to decline in team’s morale
Per the latest reports, certain seniors, including former captain Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah at MI held a meeting discussing how Pandya’s captaincy style led to decline in team’s morale, eventually for the unit to fall apart and not click during this season.
Let alone his captaincy, Pandya’s performance has been in mud this year across all departments. While he has just scored 198 runs from 12 contested matches, he has picked 12 wickets at an economy of over ten.
Looking at his performances, it remains to see how he leads MI in the remaining two matches this season.
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