Kolkata Knight Riders mentor Gautam Gambhir recently hit out at former cricketers Kevin Pietersen and AB de Villiers after they criticised Hardik Pandya's leadership skills in IPL 2024.
Pandya has been receiving flak from fans and former players like de Villiers, KP and Irfan Pathan due to Mumbai Indians' poor run this season.
MI became the first team to crash out of the playoffs race and are languishing in last place on the points table with one game to go.
Pandya is being blamed majorly for MI's dismal show. The 33-year-old had already been facing backlash from fans after he replaced Rohit Sharma as MI captain ahead of this season. The team's performance has made matters worse for him.
Gambhir comes to Pandya's defence
But Gambhir feels former players like de Villiers and Pietersen should look at their own captaincy record in the IPL before going after someone like Pandya, who won the IPL title in his first year as captain of Gujarat Titans in their debut season years ago.
"What was his own performance when he was the captain? I don't think, be it Kevin Pietersen or AB de Villiers, they had any performance in their career with leadership. Nothing if you pick and see their records.
"I don't think AB de Villiers has achieved anything in the IPL apart from his own scores. I don't think he has achieved anything from a team's point of view,” Gambhir said on Sportskeeda.
ABD issues clarification
De Villiers meanwhile, took to social media to clarify that his comments about Pandya were misquoted by the media.
"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 (laughs).
"And I am very happy that some of you have pointed it out, taking some of those comments out and leaving the rest," AB de Villiers said in his YouTube show.
