IND vs BAN: Piyush Chawla settles Rohit Sharma vs Hardik Pandya captaincy debate, addresses booing impact

Mumbai Indians leg-spinner Piyush Chawla talked about the difference in the leadership of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. Piyush Chawla said that everyone has a different style of leadership.

Mumbai Indians made a massive captaincy change in the IPL 2024. Ahead of the tournament, they removed Rohit Sharma as the leader of the team and appointed Hardik Pandya as the captain. The move didn't work, as the franchise ended the league last on the points table and was the first team to be eliminated from the tournament.

Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, guided Mumbai Indians to the five titles. He made the franchise most successful in the league. Even with the young team, he took the side to Qualifier 2 of the IPL 2023, and his leadership skills were one of the main reasons Mumbai became a successful franchise.

Hardik Pandya, who was booed by the fans in the IPL 2024, took Gujarat Titans to the title win in IPL 2022 and then took them to the final of the IPL 2023. But he couldn't replicate the same for Mumbai Indians as he struggled to get going as a leader in the season.

While talking about the difference between the leadership of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, Piyush Chawla, who played under both, said that everyone has his own style of leading the team.

Piyush Chawla cited the example of different games from the IPL 2024, saying that there wasn't a lack of captaincy for them in the last edition, but they didn't play good cricket. Speaking on Shubhankar Mishra's YouTube channel, Piyush Chawla explained:

"Difference, I can't say that. Everyone has their own way of thinking. Rohit's way is different, Hardik's way is different. Hardik is the same captain under whom GT won and also were runner-ups. So it's not like that."

"T20 is about momentum. It's definitely about momentum and, in that, picking things, clicking things. If we see, KKR became the champion, KKR had a match against Hyderabad where nothing was supposed to go their way, and Klaasen got an edge against Harshit Rana, and he got out. They if may have lost that match, things would have changed.

"There was a match where Karn Sharma hit Mitchell Starc for three sixes. It is possible that if he hadn't gotten caught and bowled things could have gone wrong, in those moments, every captain is different here. Rohit's way is different, Mahi bhai's way is different, Hardik's way is different, Surya's way is different. So here, for captaincy, as a player, I won't say that there was some lack of captaincy [in Hardik]. Just that we have to accept the fact that we didn't play good cricket."

I used to sit with Hardik Pandya and discuss with him, he told me it doesn't matter - Piyush Chawla an all-rounder getting booed

Piyush Chawla also talked about Hardik Pandya getting booed by the fans throughout the IPL 2024. But he mentioned that the environment in the team was good even after the captaincy change. Piyush Chawla admitted that it made of difference when the fans booed the all-rounder.

Piyush Chawla also revealed that he has conversations with Hardik Pandya, but the all-rounder was strong, and he neglected everything. But they felt bad as a team as things weren't going well. Piyush Chawla explained:

"It makes a little impact when fans boo you. Because as a player, when you are in the ground, at the end of the day Hardik is a captain. But he is a player first. And he is a player of your team. When there is such behavior with your player, you feel bad. I used to sit with Hardik and discuss with him. He told me it doesn't matter because Hardik is such a character that he can neglect all these things.

"But it was happening so much that we were feeling bad as a team. And if we say there is a difference in performance because of that, then we all are professionals. So there was no impact in performance because of that. Just that these things were not going in our favor. So that booing and all that was happening a little more," Piyush Chawla concluded.