Hardik Pandya
's elevation to the Mumbai Indians captaincy has not gone down too well with the loyal fans of the five-time champions as he replaced the highly successful
Rohit Sharma
, a bonafide India legend and also the all-format national team captain.
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While some of the booing and hooting at the Wankhede has been toxic and unnecessary, the skipper has not done too much on the field to change the perceptions about him off it.
Not bowling
Jasprit Bumrah
straight up, changing the playing XI repeatedly, changing his own batting slot constantly, he has shown all signs of a confused and a stressed leader. What's worse, it doesn't seem as if he has the dressing room pulling in one direction.
What many felt was needless after the team's 10-run loss to Delhi Capitals was his criticism of
Tilak Varma
, the team's top run scorer with 63 off 32 balls, saying his lack of intent against
Axar Patel
cost MI the game.
"Axar bowling to a left-hander (read Tilak), the better option could have been to go after him," Hardik told the official broadcasters after the game. "I think it was just a little game awareness that we missed out. At the end of the day, that cost us the game."
Really? Let's analyse. Axar Patel bowled six balls to the promising left-hander off which he scored 14 runs. He had bowled to Tilak when MI had scored 72 for 3. Hardik was batting with Axar in the middle as MI had lost the wicket of
Suryakumar Yadav
with the team score at 65.
Tilak scored four off four balls off Axar in an attempt to momentarily consolidate till Hardik got his eye in. Once the partnership was set, he hit Axar for a six and a four prompting DC skipper
Rishabh Pant
to take him out of the attack.
Moreover, if Hardik wanted Tilak to attack, wasn't he the best man to tell him as he was in the middle?
If the skipper really wants to look at the reasons for MI's loss on Saturday, may be a closer look at his bowling figures 2-0-41-0 and the decision in sending an in-form
Tim David
out to bat at No. 7 on a small ground, may provide those.
Picking on a youngster scouted and groomed by the franchise and an ex-skipper's favourite, won't help.
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