Hardik Pandya is having a hard time while leading Mumbai Indians (MI) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The all-rounder completed a high-profile trade from Gujarat Titans (GT) to MI ahead of IPL 2024 and replaced Rohit Sharma as skipper.
Under his leadership, the five-time champions have lost five of their eight games so far and they are placed at the seventh spot in the 10-team points table.
On Monday (April 22), Mumbai Indians suffered a crushing nine-wicket defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Jaipur.
Riding on Sandeep Sharma’s five-wicket haul, RR restricted MI to 179/9 in 20 overs. Chasing the target, the hosts got over the line with eight deliveries to spare, courtesy of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s unbeaten hundred (104* off 60 balls).
Despite the heavy loss, MI skipper Hardik Pandya refused to acknowledge the issues that are holding back his team. Hence, he was indirectly criticized by South African legend Dale Steyn.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Steyn took a veiled dig at Hardik without taking his name. The retired Proteas pacer wrote: "I really look forward to the day players might say what's honestly on their mind. Instead, we some how dumbed ourselves and our minds into saying the usual safe thing, lose the next game, smile and then repeat that nonsense again."
After the match, Hardik Pandya admitted to being outplayed by the Royals but added that he would not get into any immediate dissection of the loss.
"We put ourselves in trouble early on. The way Tilak and Nehal batted - that was fantastic but we didn't finish well and that's why we were 10-15 runs short. While bowling, we had to keep it within the stumps. Early on in the powerplay, we gave a lot of width and I don't think it was our best day in the field as well. Overall, we did not put the right foot on the park and eventually they outplayed us," Hardik said in the post-match interaction.
"After the game, it's not the right time to go to the players, everyone is professional, they know their roles. What we can do is learn from this game and the mistakes which we have made, rectify it and make sure that we don't make it," he added.
Despite the dismal campaign thus far, Hardik backed his players instead of thinking about chop and change.
“Progression is very important. Within the team, individually, we will have to accept our flaws and maybe work on those. I don't believe much in chip and chop, I like to back players and the focus would always be to play good cricket, sticking to our plans and making sure that we don't make the basic errors. Cricket is simple, as long as we keep it simple, it's nice,” the MI captain remarked.
Mumbai Indians’ next match is scheduled against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday (April 27).
