One statement from AB de Villiers has led to a lot of counter statements and opinions from big names in the Cricket World.
De Villiers took to his YouTube channel to talk about Hardik Pandya who has assumed the captaincy role for 5 time IPL champions, Mumbai Indians.
Pandya hasn’t had a good season in the IPL 2024, with a lot of criticism and trolling coming his way. A lot of this trolling could be blamed onto the sudden captaincy change in MI, leading to the fans being confused and disoriented as they don’t see their favorite, Rohit Sharma As the captain anymore.
What De Villers said about Pandya
AB de Villiers talked about the current season of IPL on his YouTube channel, AB de Villiers 360.
The ex-South African captain and RCB player had previously announced retirement from all forms of cricket, after admitting to an eye surgery. De Villiers however, keeps in touch with the recent developments with the game and is updated with the IPL 2024.
De Villiers had called Pandya’s leadership “ego driven” and “not genuine”.
De Villiers remarked, “The captaincy style of Hardik Pandya is quite bravado. It’s ego-driven in a way, chest out. I don’t think how he walks on the field is always genuine, but he has decided that is his way of captaincy. Almost like MS (Dhoni). Cool, calm, collective, always got your chest out.”
However, the South African later cleared the air saying he “loves Hardik Pandya”.
“I see there is a lot of activity on X about the comments I made about Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians. And it’s a shame that journalism and reporting has got so low. And I am very happy that some of you have pointed it out, taking some of those comments out and leaving the rest,” said the former RCB star, lashing out at the misinterpretation of his remarks about the current MI captain.
Gambhir’s intervention
“I don’t think AB de Villiers has even captained any game in the IPL or ultimately achieved anything apart from his own scores. I do not think he has achieved anything from a team point of view. Hardik Pandya is still an IPL-winning captain. So, you should only compare orange to oranges, not apples to oranges,” he added.
Atul Wassan on Gautam Gambhir
After all of this, Ex-cricketer from India, Atul Wassan spoke up about how Gautam Gambhir is usually keen on inciting conflicts, as they help him keep his head in the game. He further added that Gambhir should be better if he’d tone it down a little.
“Gautam Gambhir is my junior and he is a great player and achieved many things in his career. When Gambhir used to play, he used to feel that such conflicts, would bring the best out of him and it worked for him.” Wassan sai
“Gambhir used to do much better when he used to fight with someone. If he could just tone down a bit then he’s got a lot of talent. He can work well and he is a great mentor but this conflict thing becomes the team’s dogma attitude he is with,” he added.
It is an important piece of information, that Gambhir has mentored KKR into winning 9 of 13 matches, and the team now stands at the top of the IPL 2024 standings with 19 points and have a net run rate of +1.428.
The Kolkata-based franchise only lost three matches in the 17th season which came against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Rajasthan Royals (RR), and Punjab Kings (PBKS).
KKR is now set to compete against Rajasthan Royals in their next match.
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