'What did they uproot…' Gautam Gambhir's anger on De Villiers and Pietersen who raised questions on Hardik Pandya, reminded of his own performance

 

Gautam Gambhir: Before IPL 2024, Mumbai Indians took a big decision and appointed Hardik Pandya as the captain of the team, but their decision did not go well. The blue jersey team became the first team to be eliminated from the playoff race. Apart from this, big players like former South African legend AB de Villiers and former England batsman Kevin Pietersen also raised questions on Hardik's captaincy. But meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders mentor Gautam Gambhir has come out in support of Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya and has given a befitting reply to the critics.

Gautam Gambhir supported Hardik

Gautam Gambhir said during a program on Sportskeeda that Hardik Pandya has just joined Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans, so he will have to give him some time. They said,

“It is important to understand that Hardik Pandya has come back from another franchise and in such a situation it may take you some time. You would expect him to captain Mumbai Indians after captaining Gujarat Titans for two years. He could have done well, I am not saying he could not have done well and he did not, but it happens.”

“Give them some time, every day someone or the other is judging them. The experts who are criticizing him should remember the time of his captaincy. Be it AB de Villiers or Kevin Pietersen. I don't think he did anything special in his leadership. If you look at his records, he will be much worse than the rest.”

Gautam Gambhir took a dig at AB de Villiers

Gautam Gambhir targeted AB de Villiers and said that he was a complete flop as a captain. Also, he used to bat only to improve his statistics. Gauti said,

“I don't think AB de Villiers has captained any team in the IPL. Leave aside captaincy, he has not achieved anything else in the IPL apart from making big scores. I don't think they even achieved anything from the team's point of view. Hardik Pandya is still the IPL winning captain, so you should compare oranges with oranges and not apples.”

Mumbai Indians' performance was poor

The successful IPL 2024 passed like a nightmare for Mumbai Indians. Mumbai, which won the IPL title 5 times under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, proved to be a failure under the leadership of Hardik Pandya. He has played 13 games so far in the league stage this season.

They won only 4 of the matches, while they had to face defeat in 9. They became the first team to be eliminated from the playoff race. Now Mumbai Indians have to play their last match this season against Lucknow Super Giants on 17th May.