Hardik was traded from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians ahead of the season and replaced Rohit Sharma as captain for the 2024 IPL. However, he has not had the best tournament, as captain or player, receiving flak from experts for his tactics and his on-field performances.

Mumbai are currently eighth in the points table with four wins from 12 games, having recorded the joint-least wins among all sides in the competition. As a player, Hardik has been unable to inspire as well, scoring 198 runs at a strike rate of 147.76. He has picked up 11 wickets but has proven to be expensive, going at 10.58 runs an over, in a difficult tournament for bowlers.

Recent reports in The Indian Express allege that several senior players including Rohit, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav have questioned Hardik’s captaincy, affecting the team’s morale.

De Villiers has now claimed that his “bravado” leadership approach is proving ineffective in a team with so many experienced stars, and that it worked with his former side Gujarat Titans where there were younger players. Hardik led Gujarat to the title in their first year in the IPL in 2022 and led them into the final last year.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, de Villiers said: “The captaincy style of Hardik Pandya is quite bravado. It’s ego-driven in a way, chest out. I don’t think the way he walks on the field is always genuinely real to the person that he really is, but he has decided that is his way of captaincy. Almost like MS. Cool, calm, collective, always got your chest out, always smiling,” he added.

“But the problem with that is if you play with a lot of experienced players, guys who have been around for ages, they don’t buy into that. It worked at GT, where it was a younger team. Sometimes, inexperienced players love to follow that kind of leadership.”

He also gave an example of his former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith to make his point. “I think of Graeme Smith who was very much out there. He was the guy for the team. All I needed to do as a youngster was just to follow. Now all of a sudden there’s a Rohit, there’s a Bumrah. There’s a lot of experienced players around and they go like, ‘All we need you to be is calm. Give us a bit of info [information] and input into what we need to do to win matches. We don’t need the bravado.’ I’m not having a go at Hardik,” he said.

“I actually love watching him play. I love him putting out his chest because I was like that. It takes a special senior player to buy into that and say ‘You know what? You put your chest out, fake it out there, and we’ll follow you, no matter what We understand you.’ I don’t think that has clicked in the season for Mumbai Indians.”