Grace under fire

Circa 2022 – The Indian men’s team lose the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli don’t appear in any T20 internationals after that, and it’s presumed their international T20 careers are over. They are focusing all their energy on the 50-over World Cup. In that time, it is somewhat presumed that Hardik Pandya will take over T20 captaincy but true to the BCCI communication handbook, nothing is made official.

Circa 2023 – The side plays wonderfully but heartbreakingly falls short in the final. Rohit Sharma’s wait for a 50-over World Cup looks like it will remain unfulfilled. More importantly, Virat and Rohit, arguably two of the biggest stars of Indian cricket, have never won a World Cup playing together.

The dust settles down and suddenly, Kohli and Sharma seem to want to make a run at World Cup glory again. By now, Hardik Pandya is out of the side due to injury and is not really in the conversation mix.

IPL 2024 – Hardik Pandya is unfairly on the receiving end of a lot of hate for returning to the Mumbai Indians from the Gujarat Titans. Unfortunately for Pandya, his side starts badly, and it appears like there are cracks in the side.

A couple of instances:

In a post-match presentation against Chennai, alluding to Dhoni, Pandya says they have someone behind the stumps telling them what to do. If you read between the lines, he’s saying their captain has support while he doesn’t.

After another defeat, Pandya criticized opener Tilak Varma (who is supposed to be a favorite of Rohit Sharma) for not playing with intent against spin. Incidentally, Varma was the highest scorer in the match and he’s one of the players who has been picked and nurtured by the franchise.

Neither of these acts will endear him as captain to his players, and he’s making an already tenuous transfer of power even more thorny. In addition, his propensity for injuries will weigh heavily on his chances of securing the captaincy.

Rohit Sharma will captain the side in the T20 World Cup in 2024, and whatever the result, it will be his last. There are many others waiting in the wings. Jasprit Bumrah, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant – all of them are captaincy material. Whether they are ready for it at the international level and if they will be handed it is a different question. But Hardik isn’t miles above the rest for the position of captain. And while he’s had a thorny start to his captaincy at Mumbai, throwing your players under the bus won’t go unnoticed. It’s one thing to say we didn’t bat or bowl or field well. It’s another to pick on players (Tilak Varma) or deflect blame (saying CSK has Dhoni behind the stumps) to defend yourself.

Captaincy has its bad seasons and grace under fire is a skill that Hardik Pandya seems to be currently lacking in.