After ending a disastrous campaign at the bottom of the points table, Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher acknowledged the team’s struggles and stressed the need for patience and careful consideration before making any changes .
tle -->After an 18-run loss against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Mumbai Indians’ 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season came to an abrupt end as they finished last in the IPL table.
Boucher addressed Hardik Pandya’s captaincy and batting and acknowledged the all-round leadership potential.The MI head coach believes that Pandya will learn from this experience and become a stronger leader.Hardik had one of his worst seasons with both bat and ball and his captaincy was also criticized in the end.”Even Hardik would be disappointed with his performance.
Image source -Google Image by economictimes
From a captain’s point of view, he had great games,” Boucher said in the post-match press conference.Boucher believes Pandya will grow as a leader and learn from this experience.”There are many things around him that sometimes interfere with his thinking, which is also difficult for him as a manager.
He certainly had a lot of support in our dressing room and the boys try to help him. , but as a player it is difficult to get along. It is what it is, and it will undoubtedly be a learning curve for him as his leadership grows. Although times are tough now, some things are going well and he is becoming a tougher leader.
So there are wonderful things coming for Hardik Pandya as a manager,” he added.”He came into the season with little cricket, so it was always going to be relatively difficult for him. We understood that too. His bowling improved greatly as the season progressed. Unfortunately, he hasn’t thrown a bat this season.
He has shown what he can do,” the MI head coach said.On Pandya’s captaincy and his own future, Boucher remained tight-lipped but stressed that important decisions should always be made after calm assessment.n“As far as my stuff goes, then I’m honestly not quite sure where I’m going. Like I said, it’s still in the early stages. Many people are emotional. The debate is probably about all of us.
I don’t think there is only one person. We are in a high-performance zone and if you fall behind, you have to look at yourself,” he added.”So, the only thing I can do as a coach is to do my best, which is exactly what I did. I don’t regret what I did here. Could I have done things better? I sit back and appreciate it like we do with all the players,” he said.
There have been concerns about MI’s poor performance over the last three years and Boucher admitted that a thorough analysis of the form of the five-time IPL champions is needed.”Yes, it is disappointing. After the auction, we identified that our bowlers were something we wanted to strengthen and we felt we did that. Losing two players early in the season was not good for us, but we still had great chances so I thought we would have done a lot better than we did, we just couldn’t combine the batting and bowling in one game.
You’ve always been let down, which is unfortunate,” Boucher said.”It’s a concern and certainly something we have to address as a franchise. I’m sure we will. Mumbai Indians is a very successful franchise for a reason. When you see trends like this, you sit back and appreciate each season.
You make an assessment and when trends emerge every year, you have to sit back and make changes and make big calls, which I’m sure we’ll be fine,” said the MI coach.In just 14 matches of IPL 2024, Hardik scored 216 runs, including a maximum of 46. 143.05Despite taking 11 wickets with the ball in the season, he had an economy rate of 10.75 and an average of 35.18(This story will not be edited by NDTV- staff.)Topics mentioned in this article.
