NEW DELHI: Kolkata Knight Riders mentor
Gautam Gambhir
on Tuesday jumped into defence of a struggling Mumbai Indians skipper
Hardik Pandya
, who has been in the line of fire for his leadership skills.
The five-time champions have had a really tough season under new skipper and the likes of cricketing greats
AB de Villiers
and
Kevin Pietersen
have openly criticized Hardik's leadership throughout this IPL.
Gambhir took on Hardik critics, saying that de Villiers and Pietersen themselves haven't achieved anything as 'leaders'.
"It’s not important what experts are saying, it’s their job to say something or the other. My opinion has always been that you judge someone’s captaincy by his team's performance. If MI had performed well (this year), all experts would have been praising him. Today MI have not performed well and that's why everyone is talking about it," Gambhir told Sportskeeda.
"It’s important to realise that Hardik Pandya has come from some other franchise so it takes time, give him some time. Suddenly, you expect him to deliver at Mumbai, after captaining for two years at Gujarat. He could have delivered, I am not saying he couldn’t have but if he hasn't, it's fine, give him a bit more time," he further added.
De Villiers had recently pointed out that Hardik's captaincy style is quite bravado and ego-driven.
"Judging him every day, every match, everything is not right. Those experts who have criticised him, they should see their own performances when they have captained a side. Whether it’s AB de Villiers or Kevin Pietersen. I don't think in their career there is any performance of leadership, nothing. If you go and see their records, it’s worse than any other leader," Gambhir said.
"So, you should compare oranges to oranges, not apples to oranges," Gambhir concluded.
In the 13 matches played so far, Hardik, the all-rounder has scored a mere 200 runs with the bat with an average of 18.18 and has taken 11 wickets.
With 9 defeats in 13 matches, Mumbai are already out of the IPL playoffs race.
They play their final game against Lucknow Super Giants on May 17.
English (US) ·