Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor didn't mince his words while opining on Kevin Pietersen and AB de Villiers' comments regarding Hardik Pandya's captaincy during the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Pandya has been subjected to a lot of backlash for his captaincy during IPL 2024, facing the wrath of the fans in the form of ceaseless boos as well as the pundits who have dissected time and again what's lacking in the all-rounder's leadership at the five-time champions.
BET NOW: Exclusive sign-up offers and bonuses when you bet on IPL action
Among those to have spoken about Pandya were Pietersen and De Villiers.
De Villiers, speaking on his YouTube show last week, spoke about Pandya's "ego-driven" style of captaincy. "The captaincy style of Hardik Pandya is quite bravado. It's ego-driven in a way, chest out," he said.
"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. Cool, calm, collective, always got your chest out. But when you play with a lot of experienced players, guys who have been around for ages... They don't buy into that."
Pietersen, meanwhile, slammed Pandya for trying too hard and being stubborn about sticking to just one plan even when it consistently fails.
"What I saw this evening wasn't good enough," said Pietersen on Star Sports."I saw a captain that had plan A from a team meeting that was five hours ago and a captain that didn't want to go to plan B when he should have gone to plan B. Like how on this Earth have you not bowled a spinner when your seamers are going for 20. Brian Lara said can we please bowl a spinner? Somebody needs to bowl here. You need to change the pace of the game.
"I actually think with Hardik Pandya everything away from the game is affecting him so much. He's smiling too much when he does the toss, he's trying to act like he's so happy. He's not happy. I've been there. I've been in the firing line and I've been in the firing line proper, he knows I've been in the firing line, you know, I've been in the firing line and I can tell you now, it affects you."
Gambhir, though, fired back at the duo, stating that only those who have achieved something as a captain are fit to comment on Pandya's situation.
MORE: Were MI's overseas players the only one to accept Hardik Pandya as captain?
What did Gautam Gambhir say about Kevin Pietersen and AB de Villiers?
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Gambhir was asked to share his thoughts on the comments by Pietersen and De Villiers. Here is his response:
When these two captained, what were their performances? I don’t think Kevin Pietersen and AB de Villiers achieved anything remarkable as captains. When you look at their records, it is worse than any other leader. I don’t think AB de Villiers has led in IPL. If AB has, I don’t think he has achieved anything apart from his own scores. Hardik Pandya is still an IPL winning captain. So you should compare oranges to oranges and not oranges to apples.
