Mumbai Indians leg-spinner Piyush Chawla spoke about the difference in leadership between Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. Piyush Chawla said that each has a different leadership style.
Mumbai Indians made a major captaincy change in the IPL 2024. Ahead of the tournament, they removed Rohit Sharma as the team leader and appointed Hardik Pandya as the captain. The move did not work out as the franchise finished the league at the bottom of the points table and was the first team to be eliminated from the tournament.
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma guided Mumbai Indians to five titles. He made the franchise the most successful in the league. Even with the young squad, he led the team to the second qualifying round of IPL 2023, and his leadership skills were one of the main reasons why Mumbai became a successful franchise.
Hardik Pandya, who was booed by the fans in IPL 2024, led Gujarat Titans to title victory in IPL 2022 and then took them to the final of IPL 2023. But he could not replicate the same for Mumbai Indians as they struggled to get going as a leader in the season.
Talking about the difference between the leadership of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, Piyush Chawla, who played with both, said that each has his own style of leading the team.
Piyush Chawla cited the example of different matches in the IPL 2024 and said that they did not lack captaincy in the last edition but they did not play good cricket. Speaking on Shubhankar Mishra’s YouTube channel, Piyush Chawla explained:
“I can’t say that about the difference. Everyone has their own way of thinking. Rohit’s way of thinking is different, Hardik’s way of thinking is different. Hardik is the same captain with whom GT won and also finished runners-up. So it’s not like that.”
“T20 is all about momentum. It’s definitely about momentum and in that, picking things, getting things to click. If we see, KKR became the champions, KKR had a match against Hyderabad where nothing was supposed to go their way, and Klaasen got an advantage against Harshit Rana, and he got out. If they had lost that match, things would have changed.
“There was a match where Karn Sharma hit Mitchell Starc for three sixes. It is possible that if he had not been caught and bowled, things could have gone wrong, in such moments, every captain is different here. Rohit’s form is different, Mahi Bhai’s form is different, Hardik’s form is different, Surya’s form is different. So, here, captaincy-wise, as a player, I will not say that there was any lack of captaincy. [in Hardik]”We just have to accept the fact that we didn’t play good cricket.”
I used to sit with Hardik Pandya and argue with him, he told me it doesn’t matter – Piyush Chawla, an all-rounder, was booed
Piyush Chawla also spoke about the booing that Hardik Pandya was given by the fans during the IPL 2024. But he mentioned that the atmosphere in the team was good even after the change of captain. Piyush Chawla admitted that it made a difference when the fans booed the all-rounder.
Piyush Chawla also revealed that he has talks with Hardik Pandya but the all-rounder was strong and neglected everything. However, they felt bad as a team as things were not going well. Piyush Chawla explained:
“It has little impact when fans boo you. Because as a player, when you are on the field, at the end of the day Hardik is a captain. But first and foremost, he is a player. And he is a player of your team. When there is such behaviour with one of your players, you feel bad. I used to sit with Hardik and talk to him. He would tell me that it doesn’t matter because Hardik is such a strong character that he can neglect all these things.
“But it was happening so much that we felt bad as a team. And if we say there is a difference in performance because of that, then we are all professionals. So there was no impact on performance because of that. Just these things were not going in our favour. So the booing and all that was happening a bit more,” concluded Piyush Chawla.
