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Hardik Pandya (Source: X)
Mumbai Indians' performance in this year's Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 has deteriorated from other years. Even since the captaincy change has taken place, their performances have dripped. This isn't the first time that Hardik has captained any side in the IPL. Previously in 2022 and 2023, he was the captain of the Gujarat Titans team where he won the IPL trophy in the first year itself and led the team to the finals in the 2nd year.
However, something seems to be off this year. Neither the luck is supporting MI, nor Hardik in general as his performance has been considerably down. There are several reasons why MI is in the 7th position this year with just six wins out of 8 matches in the tournament so far but Hardik's captaincy is one of them.
Let's check out three blunders Hardik Pandya made in the IPL 2024:
1. Misused prime bowler Jasprit Bumrah
In all the eight matches, Jasprit Bumrah was deprived of bowling the first over whose reason is still unknown. Mostly it's Hardik or Gerald Coetzee who bowl the first over of the innings. Apart from this, during the match between Mi and SRH, where the orange army scored 277 runs, Bumrah was only given two overs to the ball. This was disappointing from Hardik since Bumrah is the prime wicket-taker bowler for MI.
2. Bowling in the powerplays
One of the biggest mistakes by Hardik is that he bowls during the powerplays. He is a part-time bowler and has just recovered from injury. Hence he misses his line and length, but still, he chooses to bowl in the powerplays and the batters find it easy for them to hit the ball.
3. Hardik's form is a matter of concern
When the captain isn't batting or bowling, how can we expect the players to do it? This is the first question every cricket fan asks seeing Hardik's performance in the matches. He hasn't fired up with the bat and ball and seems like he is unable to concentrate on his performance considering the things happening off the field. However, if Hardik returns to form, winning matches consecutively will become easy for MI.