'Even MS Dhoni made mistakes': Ex-India cricketer's shocking U-turn after being left 'mind-blown' by Hardik's captaincy

One of the biggest turning point in Hardik Pandya's career was IPL 2022. Up until then, world cricket was well aware of his all-round skills and match-winning abilities. But that IPL season introduced Hardik the captain, a side none had even considered to explore and the arrival of it couldn't have been better with India contemplating captaincy future after Rohit Sharma. And so impressive it was with title win for Gujarat Titans in 2022 and run to the final in the next season, that most, if not all, experts compared his tactical abilities to that of MS Dhoni. Hardik was immediately elevated to the captaincy position for the Ireland series that summer before being handed leadership duties every time regular skipper Rohit Sharma was rested. (India vs West Indies 3rd T20I Live Cricket Score)

However, Hardik's captaincy has been the cynosure after India's twin defeats in the ongoing T20I series against West Indies. India lost the opener last Thursday by four wickets, after failing to chase 152, and then incurred a two-wicket loss in the second match on Sunday in Guyana. This was the first time ever that the Men in Blue suffered successive defeats against West Indies in a T20I bilateral series.

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Following the loss on Sunday, Hardik was lambasted by fans and experts for his bizarre on-field call to not give Yuzvendra Chahal his final over despite West Indies losing three wickets in his third over which reduced to hosts to eight down with 23 still left to score in 24 balls. Hardik's decision to go back to pacers allowed Windies to bounce back and complete the chase with seven balls to spare.

‘Even someone like MS Dhoni did make mistakes’

Speaking on Jio Cinemas after the match, former India cricketer Robin Uthappa admitted that he couldn't digest the fact that Hardik did not give Chahal his final over.

"I have one expression – one Gen-Z expression for this moment – 'poof' and not in a nice way. I am just mind-blown by how when a guy gets you three wickets in an over (Chahal took two and one was a run-out) essentially you don't bring him back for another one and kind of close the game completely," Uthappa had said.

However on Tuesday, ahead of the start of the 3rd T20I, the veteran wicketkeeper batter took a shocking U-turn as he backed Hardik to bounce back as skipper, explaining that even the legendary Dhoni made tactical errors during his captaincy days for Team India. In reply to a query from Hindustan Times during a group media interaction from Jio Cinemas, Uthappa added that with Hardik being a "progressive skipper", he will learn from his mistakes through his journey as a captain in international cricket.

“To err is to human. He will make some errors. Even someone like MS Dhoni did make mistakes. There were errors in judgement in his leadership when he led the country. But Hardik is someone who looks at captaincy from a progressive point of view. We have seen him lead only in IPL thus far and in international cricket, it will be a little bit of a journey. You cannot expect that transition happening immediately. You have to give him some time and acknowledge that all these players are playing a white-ball game after the IPL so there has been a bit of a break,” he said.