Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya has had a rough initiation as MI captain in IPL 2024. The franchise started poorly and despite a handful of wins, see themselves at the bottom of the points table with 3 wins in 11 matches.
MI are only mathematically alive in the race to IPL 2024 playoffs but practically the chances in a sorry campaign for the five-time champions are as good as over.
Pandya was traded in from Gujarat Titans in an all-cash deal by Mumbai Indians ahead of the IPL 2024 and then in a controversial decision, made captain of the side, replacing Rohit Sharma. The fans were not happy with MI discarding their five-time IPL-winning captain Rohit with such disdain and appointing Hardik in his place.
Hardik was booed everywhere MI has played in this IPL, even at their home ground in Mumbai. Performance-wise Hardik Pandya has suffered as well, scoring 198 runs in 11 matches and taking only 8 wickets.
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Hardik Pandya has admitted that "failing and learning" teaches you experience that not even you idol, mentor and even MS Dhoni couldn't teach him.
"Responsibility-wise, I was always someone who wanted responsibility because when you own your things, it kind of becomes more personal to you. So for me, it was always about owning my mistakes and at the same point of time taking those chances, maybe failing and learning. That experience no one can teach you - not your closest aide, not your idol, to some extent not even Mahi Bhai (MS Dhoni) when he was around," said Hardik on the 'Captains Speak' segment of Star Sports.
MS Dhoni was the one who had backed Hardik Pandya as India’s premier pace all-rounder early in his career.
"Some failures you experience and then learn. Because of that, I think, I started understanding what are the roles and what are the roles I am good at, how I can get better at that," Hardik added.
Here is the video: