NEW DELHI: It was former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen s response to criticisms of his captaincy by Gautam Gambhir on the leadership abilities of cricketing icons.
However, he defended Hardik Pandya’s captaincy against Pietersen and previously South African player AB de Villiers in an interview with Sportskeeda. In particular, Gambhir stated that “Those criticizing Pandya have woeful captaincy records themselves, and are not able leaders.”
Pietersen, known for speaking his mind, admitted to his failures as a leader saying,” He’s not wrong.I was a terrible captain!!!” The former English skipper echoed Gambhir’s statement in a rare instance of self-awareness.
Beforehand AB de Villiers had reservations on leadership qualities displayed by Pandya which he termed egoistic. On the other hand, Pietersen criticized Pandya for being ‘happy when he is not’ and ‘smiling too much’ while leading Mumbai Indians during Indian Premier League 2024.
Moreover, Gambhir came to support Pandya by comparing their records with Pietersen and de Villiers as captains: “If you look up their records, it would be worse than any other leader.” He emphasized that similar achievements should be compared because this will refer to how IPL-winning captain he has been.
Under Pietersen’s captaincy there were two IPL teams led by him – RCB and DC (formerly Delhi Daredevils) – as well as England cricket team. However, IPL success was limited in terms of his stint as captain with only two wins out of six RCB matches in 2009 and bottom finish in 2014 with Delhi under his tutelage.
