'Hardik Pandya's captaincy style is ego-driven': Ab de Villiers rips apart Hardik's fake 'bravado'

The Mumbai Indians have had a forgetful campaign after they crashed out of the IPL 2024 season. It was a horrendous time under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya, which marked a new era in the Mumbai-based franchise. However, Pandya failed to replicate the success he had in the Gujarat Titans, where he led the franchise to a title win in the first year of its commencement. Pandya's captaincy is a point of scrutiny among the fans and pundits. Now that the five-time IPL champions have been kicked out of the playoffs, Hardik has come to light, and a former cricketer vented his frustration over the situation.

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AB de Villiers expresses dissatisfaction over Hardik Pandya's captaincy style, draws parallels with MS Dhoni's MO

Former South Africa and RCB cricketer AB de Villiers opened up on Hardik Pandya's captaincy in one of the videos on his YouTube channel. The former cricketer believes the all-rounder's captaincy style may not be the right fit for the Mumbai Indians' dressing room. He further noted his captaincy style as bravado and ego-driven and also compared it to MS Dhoni's modus operandi. 

“MI have been very disappointing. I backed them to qualify for the knockout stages, but that didn’t happen. What has gone wrong? 5th in 2021, 10th in 2022, 4th in 2023 and they are 9th. Rohit Sharma said, ‘I have played under a lot of captains. It’s nothing new. You do what you are required to do and I have been doing that for the last one month.’ You can read a little bit into that if you want to.

“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,” AB de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

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Mumbai Indians were the first team to be kicked out of the playoff race in the IPL 2024 season, while Punjab Kings was the second. With the IPL entering the phase of climax, more teams will be left heartbroken after they will miss out, and it will all come down to the top four teams in the playoffs.