Kevin Pietersen Responds To Gautam Gambhir: Hardik Pandya, the Indian cricket team all-rounder, was subject to a lot of criticism due to his performance as Mumbai Indians (MI) captain in IPL 2024. While Hardik replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain of the franchise before the start of IPL 2024, the result was far from a favourable one as the five-time champions became the first team to get eliminated from the race to the Playoffs this season.
Hardik's captaincy was criticised by several cricketing experts including ex-England cricketer Kevin Pietersen and former South Africa and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) legend AB de Villiers.
Both the cricket stars criticised Hardik's leadership but Gautam Gambhir, ex-IPL winning captain with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and their current mentor has instead lashed out on De Villiers and Pietersen, saying that the two achieved nothing when they were playing in the IPL.
Pietersen, however, gave a sporting response to Gambhir's criticism and stated that the KKR mentor was not incorrect but he had indeed not done anything extraordinary during his IPL career. "He’s not wrong. I was a terrible captain!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 @GautamGambhir," Pietersen wrote in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter).
Take a look at Pietersen's tweet here:
Pietersen, De Villiers' Own Performance Worse Than Any Other Leader: Gambhir
While lashing out at the two Gambhir had said that their own performance in IPL was perhaps worse than any other leader.
"When they themselves did captaincy [were captains], what were their own performances like? I do not think that whether it is Kevin Pietersen or AB de Villiers, there have ever been performances in their careers from a leadership point of view. Nothing. If you look up their records, I think it's worse than any other leader," Gambhir told in an interaction with Sportskeeda.
READ HERE | 'Responsible For Indian Cricket's Turnaround': Kevin Pietersen Lauds India Legend
"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," Gambhir had said for De Villiers.