Hardik Pandya has certainly made a mark with his leadership skills in IPL 2022. Donning the captain’s armband for the first time in the league, Hardik led Gujarat Titans to 3 consecutive victories before Sunrisers Hyderabad prevailed in Mumbai on Monday.
Hardik has been winning praise for the way he has led Gujarat Titans, leading from the front with both bat and ball and carrying a commanding aura on the field. However, against SRH, Hardik lost his cool, defending a total of 162.
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Hardik had conceded just 5 runs in his first 2 overs, but when he retired to bowl his third over, SRH captain Kane Williamson attacked him, hitting the medium pacer for two consecutive sixes, prompting the former champions to ask. helped to bring the rate under control. After a slow start.
Hardik had a chance to dismiss Williamson’s batting partner Rahul Tripathi. He bowled a well-directed bouncer which Tripathi tried to take it to the third-man boundary. As the ball went up in the air, boundary rider Mohammed Shami had a chance to take the catch and send it back to the batsman.
However, instead of moving forward, Shami took the safe route of saving the boundary by retreating. Not going for Shami’s catch did not go down well with Hardik, who was caught on camera shouting at the senior pacer.
Even as a section of fans criticized Hardik for not controlling his emotions in the moment of crisis, Swann said that it was not because of his captaincy that GT lost their first match in their initial IPL journey. gave.
“I’ll tell you what we shouldn’t. We shouldn’t watch it and suddenly say that Hardik is not a good captain. The fact that he didn’t score enough runs made him lose the game, not Hardik Pandya’s captaincy. He shuffled his packs quite well, but of course, as a captain or bowler (in tense situations) your nerves get a little fried. It was not Hardik’s captaincy, but the lack of runs, Which he had to pay,” Swann told Star Sports.
Hardik scored 50 runs in a peculiar innings but bowled well for his figures of 1/27 in 4 overs but they were not enough as SRH chased down the total with 8 wickets to spare.
Hayden on a missed chance
Criticizing Shami’s approach, former Australia opener Matthew Hayden said that a team needs special efforts on the field while defending less-par totals.
“I think it was a really important moment in the match, he was bowling at a good pace. Mohammed Shami was on the boundary and didn’t make any effort. In fact, he came back on the boundary, I wouldn’t say That he avoided the catch. Necessarily.” Hayden said.
“He really needed to go more inside the boundary. When you’re not defending much, it’s really about working hard for your teammates and catching the effort and making plays. Be it a run-out or a catch or just an assist, in general, to prevent a batsman from hitting a boundary,” he said.