“It’s ego-driven in a way, chest out”: De Villiers on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024

Johannesburg [South Africa], May 10 (ANI): Ahead of the fixture between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, former South African cricketer AB De Villiers raised questions on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy approach in IPL, saying it is “ego-driven, chest out” and a lot of experienced players don’t buy into that. MI will lock horns with KKR in the 60th clash of the IPL 2024 at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.

“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,” said De Villiers on his YouTube channel.

The 40-year-old further urged Hardik Pandya to handle the situation calmly during the time of the match. “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, there’s a 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,” the former Proteas cricketer added.

Mumbai Indians became the first side to get eliminated from the ongoing edition of the cash-rich league. They are currently placed at the eighth spot in IPL 2024 with four wins from 12 games they have played so far. The Hardik Pandya-led side has a net run rate of -0.212.

Mumbai Indians Squad: Ishan Kishan (wk), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Nehal Wadhera, Tim David, Mohammad Nabi, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, Nuwan Thushara, Naman Dhir, Shams Mulani, Dewald Brevis, Kumar Kartikeya, Luke Wood, Shreyas Gopal, Harvik Desai, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Shivalik Sharma, Anshul Kamboj, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka.