After finishing their disastrous campaign at the bottom of the points table, Mumbai Indians (MI) coach Mark Boucher acknowledged the team’s struggles while also emphasizing the need for patience and careful consideration before making changes. After losing to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 18 runs, Mumbai’s 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season came to an abrupt end, finishing last in the IPL standings. Boucher addressed Hardik Pandya’s captaincy and batting struggles and acknowledged the player’s all-round leadership potential.
The MI head coach believes Pandya will learn from this experience and emerge as a stronger leader.
Hardik had one of his worst seasons with bat and ball and his captaincy also received criticism towards the end.
“Even Hardik would have been disappointed with his performance. From a captain’s point of view, he had some excellent games,” Boucher said in a post-match press conference.
Boucher believes Pandya will grow as a leader and gain knowledge from this experience.
“There are a lot of things going on around him that cloud his thoughts from time to time, which is also a challenge for him as a leader. He certainly had a lot of support in our locker room, and the guys are trying to help him, but that’s tough to face as a player. It is what it is, and it will no doubt be a learning curve for him as his leadership grows. Although times are tough now, some things will pass and he will be a tougher leader. So, some fantastic things are ahead for Hardik Pandya as a leader,” he added.
“He came into the season with little cricket behind him so it was always going to be reasonably difficult for him. We understand that too. His bowling has gotten a lot better as the season has gone on. Unfortunately he hasn’t fired with the bat this season, he has shown some glimpses of what he can do”, said the MI coach.
Regarding Pandya’s captaincy and his own future, Boucher remained tight-lipped but stressed that important decisions should always be taken after calm assessment.
“As for my stuff, I’m not really sure where I’m going, to be honest. Like I said, it’s still early days at the moment. A lot of people are emotional. There will probably be discussions about all of this. We, I don’t think there’s just a person. We’re in a high-performance zone, and when you underperform, you need to be looked at,” he added.
“So the only thing I can do as a coach is do my best, which is exactly what I did. I don’t regret what I did here. Could I have done better? Let’s sit down and evaluate this, as we do with all the players too,” he stated.
Concerns were raised by MI’s subpar performance over the last three years and Boucher agreed that a comprehensive analysis was needed into the form of the five-time IPL champions.
“Yes, it’s disappointing. After our auction, we identified our pitchers as something we wanted to strengthen and we feel like we did that. At the beginning of the season, losing two players wasn’t good for us, but we still had some great options. So, yes, On paper, I thought we would do much better than we did. It’s just that we couldn’t combine our batting and bowling in a single match,” Boucher said.
“This is a cause for concern and it’s certainly something we need to address as a franchise. I’m sure we will. Mumbai Indians are a very successful franchise for a reason. When you see trends like this, then you sit down, and you evaluate every season you do a review, and if there are trends happening every year, then you have to sit down and make some changes and make some important decisions, which I know for sure that we’re okay with doing that,” he said. the MI coach.
In just 14 matches of IPL 2024, Hardik has accumulated 216 runs, including a maximum of 46 runs. The all-rounder’s season began to fall apart quite early, with an average of just 18 and a strike rate of 143.05.
Despite taking 11 wickets with the ball throughout the season, his economy rate was 10.75 and his average was 35.18.
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