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The 2024 season has been disappointing for the Mumbai Indians and their new captain Hardik Pandya. The Indian all-rounder returned to MI as part of a trade from Gujarat Titans and was soon named the captain creating a lot of controversy regarding the demotion of Indian all-format captain Rohit Sharma. The noise around Pandya further rose as MI became the first team to be eliminated from the IPL playoff race.
Talking about Hardik Pandya, former Royal Challengers Bengaluru star and cricketing great AB de Villiers shared his two cents on the Indian all-rounder's leadership skills and approach towards captaincy. ABD described Pandya as ego-driven and possessing a lot of bravado, similar to one of India's best captains, MS Dhoni.
Hardik Pandya's Captaincy is ego-driven... Almost like Dhoni: ABD
“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."
It worked at GT, where it was a younger team: ABD on Pandya's captaincy
Further, AB de Villiers spoke about the shortcomings of this approach and revealed how it works in a young team but not in an experienced squad, like MI. Mr 360 said, "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.”
