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How long can Hardik Pandya last? Is he himself to blame or is he being betrayed by his big batting guns?
Mumbai Indians, headed by Hardik Pandya, are looking at an early exit following a humiliating defeat by Chennai Super Kings on Thursday night.
Hardik Pandya just can’t deliver at Mumbai Indians. He may be a fantastic player, but he doesn’t give much confidence as a captain. After their fifth defeat in seven games — a crushing loss to Chennai Super Kings on Thursday night — it will now take a minor miracle for them to reach the play-offs. The 103-run loss was their biggest by runs in IPL history. Chasing 208 to win, they were bowled out for just 104.
Before we dissect what’s the matter with Pandya, we will do well to remember that it was Pandya who had captained Gujarat Titans to the IPL trophy in their debut season in 2022. The next year, he again took them to the final.
But ever since joining Mumbai Indians ahead of 2024, he has been a pale imitation of his GT self. The team didn’t do well in his first season and finished last, and last year they reached the play-offs, but then that’s something lesser teams aspire to, not a team that has won the IPL trophy five times.
On the evidence so far, MI are back to 2024. And Pandya has been disastrous almost on all fronts. He has not contributed much as a batsman or a bowler. Just 97 runs in six games @19.40 and just 3 wickets at an economy rate of 12.67. And then he is always complaining or giving excuses. After being thumped by Punjab Kings a few days ago, he looked utterly clueless at the post-match interview. “To be very honest, I don’t have much to say right now. I think we really need to go back to the drawing board and see where we are lacking. Is it individuals? Is it as a group? Is it planning? We’ll just figure it out and see what we can do next.
“I mean, we really need to see, do we need to make some difficult calls, or do we need to keep continuing and hope that we’ll turn things around?” Pandya dismayed after the match.
It’s not becoming of a captain to admit that he didn’t know what the matter with his team was. Although they crushed GT in the game after the PBKS one, the truth of the matter was it wasn’t much of a team effort. It was the single-handed brilliance of Tilak Varma that helped them return to winning ways.
On Thursday night, Pandya once again said something that won’t sit well with you if you are an MI fan. It’s kind of an emulation of his reply after the defeat against PBKS. “I think that will be the chat where we will go back to again, go forward and figure out what we need to do. We have a couple of days. We just need to see what we can do best,” Pandya said.
Do others care about Hardik Pandya?
Frankly, the Rohit Sharma injury hasn’t helped him either. He has not played the last three games due to a hamstring injury. The absence of a player of his importance is going to affect any team. Then, Suryakumar Yadav (157 runs in 7 games at an average of 22.43 and just one fifty) has been a major disappointment. Being a senior member of the side, he has failed to take some weight off Pandya’s shoulders. His batting has been a worry for some time now. He is not the same 360-degree player. South African import Ryan Rickelton appears to have lost steam too. Jasprit Bumrah, with 2 wickets in 7 games at an average of 105, has been another major disappointment.
When all is said and done, MI’s campaign looks totally in the doldrums. While it’s a game of cricket, and anything can happen, and they can stage a grand comeback, the logic says their campaign is as good as over. It will be interesting to see how long the franchise can stick with him. When he had rejoined them as captain, he had faced a massive backlash, for it was understood he had conspired with the franchise to have Rohit removed from captaincy. There were several occasions when he was booed by MI fans.
Only a good show could have saved him. Last year, he survived because of the improvement the team showed. But they can’t go back to square one now. Pandya may not survive one more time.
