Nothing is going right since Hardik Pandya is appointed as the captain of Mumbai Indians. The joint most successful team in the history of IPL is now struggling to win matches due to poor captaincy. The team whose unity used to be the strong point is now divided into two groups and has certainly divided the fanbase according to the players rather than the team itself. And it's all happening due to flurry of bad decisions taken by Mumbai Indians management, with the primary one being appointing Hardik Pandya as the captain of the franchise.

Hardik Pandya is a poor captain, and him replacing the 5 time champion Rohit Sharma is the most ridiculous thing any franchise could've ever done. Due to this utterly stupid move, this becomes the only time when a captain of Indian national team is not a captain of an IPL team. Pandya's appointment as a skipper had already sparked a debate, and was not received well by the fans. His statement against Mumbai Indians when he was captaining Gujarat Titans was in a poor taste. It was sad to see a player speak ill about the franchise who raised him, and then seeing the sudden turnaround by him to praise Mumbai left everyone wonder if anything he ever speaks makes sense, or does he just do it for attention.

And to make matters worse, his leadership skills are below par. Anyone who is self centred and full of himself can never be a good captain. He already proved it back when he was leading Indian against West Indies when a second string team was led by him. He failed as a captain when he didn't allow a young Tilak Varma to reach to his second consecutive half century. He was already criticized by many due to this act, who termed him as a failed captain. And proving them right yet again, he did even more grave mistakes due to his lack of game awareness and self centred behaviour.

Right in the first match, he bowled the very first over of the innings. Even a kid of 5 years can understand that when the squad has match winners like Jasprit Bumrah and Gerald Coetzee, then they should open the bowling. And even when Pandya went for 11 runs from the first over, he continued to bowl. In the match against CSK, when the Chennai batters were batting exceptionally well against seamers, the ideal solution was to bring on the spinners. But it didn't happen, infact he brought himself to bowl the last over in which he was hammered by Dhoni for 20 runs, which proved to be the difference between victory and defeat. As they say, bravery and stupidity go hand in hand, which is why when one tries to be unique, it shouldn't lack common sense.

If only his bowling was a problem, it was still manageable. But his batting is also below average, forget about being up to the mark. The captain should ideally set an example by leading from the front, but he is taking his team backwards when he comes to bat. When MI were chasing a mammoth total of 278 runs, every other MI batter had a strike rate mare than 200, and played the game with right intent. In the same match Hardik scored 24 off 20 balls. Had he played with the same strike rate as others, it was much likely that MI would've won the match. The same happened against CSK when he gave away 26 runs in the last 6 balls which he bowled, when he could just make 2 runs off the 6 balls he faced.

A captain not performing well is still not an issue if he takes accountability for his actions. And Hardik has proved it when he played for GT, when at times he took the blame for the team's defeat. But it is not the case since he started to captain Mumbai Indians. He lacked the accountability in the post match presentation after the match against CSK. And infact implied that the MI team did not support him enough. A captain has to be appreciative about his players, especially when they play well. And in the same match Rohit Sharma played a gem of an innings scoring a century when he was the lone warrior for his team. And when everyone expected Pandya to speak atleast something about it in the presentation, he didn't utter a single word for the centurion who single handedly almost won the match for them.

This extreme level of self centred behaviour by Pandya is certainly not appreciated by the fans. Especially knowing that the face of franchise Rohit Sharma was sacked by the management due to Pandya's ambition, will never be well received by the fans. And what adds fuel to the fire is Pandya's under appreciation to the genuine players and the attitude to consider himself bigger than the game. He is a good player, but was never a great player. And players achieve greatness by being humble and grounded, which clearly he lacks the most. It initially looked like its only a matter of time before everything comes to normalcy, but Pandya himself is to be blamed for it not happening because of his personal traits.

One can understand the pain and anguish he is undergoing through when the fans boo at him. The constant hatred and booing is definitely affecting him psychologically leading to series of poor decisions from him. But he himself is to be blamed for it. The poor decision of Mumbai Indians management and Mark Boucher might just destroy the confidence of an Indian player to the extent, where he might never regain it. But that's also up to him to care of. Even if he does basic things like respecting the seniors and fans, the team and fans will wholeheartedly accept him. Because it's sad to see an Indian player getting booed in India, but one can understand that surely something has prompted them to do that. Hopefully, Hardik will learn the lesson in this hard way to be respectful to everyone, and consider him to be a part of the game and not bigger than it. If it happens, there is sure some hope for improvement in him, and if not, he will always be at the receiving end of the same forever.