THE NEW CAPTAIN BUT OLD RESULTS

Two seasons ago, Hardik Pandya was named the captain of the Gujarat Titans, and in his first season with them, he led his side to the title. The following season, he again managed to get his team to the finals. Everyone was considering him to be the next captain of the Indian T20 team. Although he thus captained the Indian side on a few tours and tasted success. At last, he became the vice-captain of the national side.

After that came the 17th season of the IPL. Before the start of this season, a single statement by a franchise had made a huge impact. Not just for the players but also for the fans, “Thank you, Rohit Sharma, you’ll be forever our captain and Hardik Pandya is the new captain of the Mumbai Indians for the 2024 season." This statement was enough to cause mayhem amongst the cricket fraternity and fans across India.

Many criticised the decision to remove Rohit Sharma, who has won five IPL titles. But there were others too, who welcomed it by saying that Hardik has the charisma to be the future leader, as he has shown with the Gujarat Titans. Also, Rohit has not performed at that level in the past few seasons. And also age not being on his side much, so it's better to look towards future leaders.

However, this move was not appreciated by fans, as wherever Hardik went for a toss, he received backlash from fans. All this was the emotional side of the story, with bitter and sweet sides. 

But what happened to charismatic leader Pandya now? Why is the points table telling a different story? Why is he not able to repeat the heroics he had with GT? 

Experts who welcomed this change in captaincy are now criticising decision-making of Hardik. Since the first match, Hardik's decisions have raised several eyebrows. Like bowling the initial overs of powerplay when you have the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Gerald Coetzee.

In the game against SRH, where history was created for the highest total, he only gave a single over to Bumrah in the powerplay and brought him back in the later stage of the game. But till then, the ship had been sailed, and nothing much could have been done. A similar instance occurred against CSK, where he came to bowl the last over of the innings against MS Dhoni and got smacked for three consecutive sixes. This happened when he had the option of Akash Madhwal and Romario Shepherd.

His bowling changes were always in question. When you have a lineup like Mumbai where you have plenty of options, why don't you use them? Instead, he preferred to go with bowlers who are expensive, and many times some players don't get the opportunity of bowling single over throughout the game. 

Sometimes he promoted himself up the order but was not able to leave any impact, or he sometimes demoted himself to a much lower order when the situation was crucial and an experienced player was needed.  

His field setting was also questioned, and many times he seemed lost about what to do next. Also, his form is not so good, whether it's bowling or batting. In all the games so far, he has managed to score over 190 runs and has only a handful of wickets to his name, with the economy being on the higher side.

Pandya’s comeback season with MI has not been a great one, and the chances of the side making it to the playoffs are also gone. One season apart, the story of Hardik completely changed. Once looked at as a future leader, has now looked like a clueless person on the field.