Former England great Kevin Pietersen believes that outside noise is 'affecting Hardik Pandya' despite him having a smile on his face in IPL 2024.
After CSK thrashed Mumbai Indians on Sunday, Hardik found himself in the line of fire for his poor captaincy and mediocre show with both bat and ball.
Pietersen, in a chat on Star Sports said, 'What I saw this evening was not good enough. I saw a captain that had a plan A from a team meeting that was five hours ago and the captain didn't want to go to Plan B when he should have. How on earth have you not bowled a spinner when your seamers are going for 20 runs?! Brain Lara was saying on commentary, 'Can we please bowl spinners?' They have spinners that can bowl. You need to change the pace of the game.'
Hardik has faced fan fury ever since he was appointed as Mumbai Indians' new skipper. Reflecting on that Pietersen said, 'I think with Hardik, 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 there proper! I can you that it affects you.'
'What's happening with Hardik Pandya... the boos we have been hearing now and how happy they are to see Dhoni smacking him all over the park, it hurts you. He has emotions, he's an Indian player. He doesn't want to be treated like this. With this happening, it's affecting him and his cricket. Something needs to happen,' he added.
Hardik was hit for 43 runs in his 3 overs against CSK and he was out for just 2. As a result, despite an unbeaten 105 by Rohit Sharma, MI was handed their 4th defeat in 6 outings.