Chennai Super Kings players celebrates their win during match 29 of the Indian Premier League season 17 (IPL 2024) between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings held at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on the 14th April 2024. (Sportzpics)
Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has beared the brunt of his team’s below-par performance this season. The five-time champions became the first team to be knocked out of playoffs contention on Wednesday.
Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter AB de Villiers reckons the reason behind MI’s poor show might be down to the captaincy style of Pandya, something that might not relate well with the experienced players in the dressing room.
“The captaincy style of Hardik Pandya is quite bravado. It’s ego-driven in a way, chest out,” de Villiers said in a recent video on his YouTube channel. “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 (Dhoni). 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.”
Pandya’s captaincy has been a hot subject of the ongoing Indian Premier League season with Mumbai becoming the first team to be eliminated from playoffs contention. (PTI Photo)
Furthermore, the former Proteas skipper shared his personal experience playing under Graeme Smith in the national team, and how that helped him as a player.
“I remember Graeme Smith. He was out there for the team. All I needed to do as a youngster was to follow. Now there’s a Rohit (Sharma), there’s a (Jasprit) Bumrah. They go like, ‘All we need you to be is calm. Give us a bit of input on how to win matches. We don’t need the bravado. I’m not having a go at Hardik. I love watching him play. I love him putting out his chest because I was like that. I believed that as a batter, sometimes you’ve got to fake it to make it,” de Villiers added.
Earlier on Thursday, The Indian Express reported that some of the MI senior players have questioned the functioning of the team under Pandya.
The Indian Express understands that MI’s key players recently conveyed to the coaching staff that there was a lack of buzz in the dressing room and the reason was Hardik’s leadership style.
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