Mumbai, April 10 (IANS): Ever since he made a surprising shift from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians and was named captain of the five-time IPL winner, Hardik Pandya has been facing a kind of scrutiny he has never faced in his entire cricket career.
However, Mumbai Indians' Australian middle-order batter Tim David said the skipper has played an important role in the team and going by Pandya's performance in the match against Delhi Capitals, he has been like a glue that has held the middle together and allowed the finishers to break free.
Though Pandya had started his IPL career with Mumbai Indians and it was a homecoming of sorts after he led Gujarat Titans to the title in 2022 and the runner-up finish in the last edition of the Indian Premier League, he has not welcomed with open arms. The India T20 captain has been booed by fans, his captaincy has been dissected threadbare by experts and some of his decisions have left people baffled.
But Tim David, his skipper has played a very important role in the team and has played his role perfectly. He said there have been conversations in the team over how Hardik has done, but said Hardik has been phenomenal so far.
"Yeah, we've had conversations about how he played because, to be honest, Hardick's been playing a really important role for our team. We struggled really hard for momentum towards the back end and Hardick played perfectly (in that situation)," said David during the pre-match press conference here on Wednesday, the eve of Match 25 of IPL 2024 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
"He set the platform for myself and Romario (Shepherd), and we got on with at the end. You know, we got ourselves the platform and he got that one ball that he could have hit for a six. He hit it high on the back, missed the middle (part) and got out. So that's how the game goes. Hardik's been phenomenal in the way he's been playing for the team and that's what we need at some point," said David.
The 28-year-old Aussie allrounder also noted that Hardik has been kind of a floater in the batting line up and that too has impacted his role. He said the roles have become crucial because of the entry of the Impact Player, as that provides the team with extra options in batting or bowling.
"So like I said at the start we had Hardik playing a middle-order role in the last match where he was the glue that held us together and gave us a chance to go play with freedom at the back end. So yeah, tough to say, but I would say that now you have five frontline bowlers plus an all-rounder and at the same time there are six, seven, eight batters in a team. So yeah, it's obvious you bring an extra Impact Player and you're going to get another specialist in a particular area," he added.
David said they have full faith in Hardik and said that the skipper is soon going to win matches for them.
"Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's other guys. And you could go look at the first game where Hardik hit two boundaries in his first two balls. So absolutely full faith in him. We know his power, we know how good he is and when he gets into that situation, he's going to win games for us," said David.
Mumbai Indians fans will hope that Tim David's prediction will soon come good and Harik will come up with a big score. If that happens on Thursday against RCB, that the better for them as that will help them improve their position in the points table.