Boucher addressed Hardik Pandya‘s captaincy and batting struggles, recognizing the all-rounder’s leadership potential.The MI head coach believes Pandya will learn from this experience and develop into a stronger leader. “Even Hardik would’ve been disappointed with his performance. From a captain’s perspective, he had some excellent games,” Boucher said in a post-match press conference.
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He added, “There’s a lot of stuff going around him that clouds his thoughts now and again, which is also challenging for him as a leader. He certainly had a lot of support within our dressing room, and guys are trying to help him out, but it is tricky to go through as a player. It is what it is, and it will undoubtedly be a learning curve for him with his leadership growth. While times are tough now, some things will pass, and he’ll be a tougher leader. So, some fantastic things are coming for Hardik Pandya as a leader.”
Boucher remained tight-lipped about Pandya’s captaincy and his own future but emphasized that important decisions should always be made after a level-headed assessment. “With regards to my stuff, I’m not too sure where I’m going, to be honest. As I said, it’s early days at the moment. A lot of people are emotional. There’s probably going to be discussions about all of us. I don’t think there’s only one person. We’re in a high-performance zone, and when you underperform, you need to get looked at,” he added.
“So, the only thing I can do as a coach is give my best, precisely what I’ve done. I’ve got no regrets about what I’ve done here. Could I have done things better? We’ll sit down and evaluate that, as we do with all the players as well,” he stated.
MI’s subpar performance over the last three years has raised concerns, and Boucher agreed that a thorough analysis was necessary for the five-time IPL champions.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing. After our auction, we identified our bowlers as something we wanted to strengthen, and we felt that we did that. At the beginning of the season, losing two players wasn’t great for us, but we still had some great options. So yeah, on paper, I thought we’d do much better than we’ve done. We just haven’t managed to combine our batting and bowling in one single match. One has always let the other down, which is unfortunate,” Boucher said.
“This is a cause for concern, and it is certainly something that we need 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 that, then you sit down, and you evaluate every season. You do a review, and if there are trends that are happening each year, then you do have to sit down and make some changes and make some big calls, which I know for a fact that we’re okay with doing,” said the MI coach.
Hardik had a disappointing season with both bat and ball, scoring just 216 runs in 14 matches with a highest score of 46, an average of 18, and a strike rate of 143.05. Despite taking 11 wickets, his bowling economy rate was 10.75, and his average was 35.18.
(Inputs from ANI)
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