All eyes were on Hardik Pandya on Sunday night as he kicked off his Mumbai Indians stint as a captain, having replaced Rohit Sharma in the role last December. With the all-rounder filling the big shoes, of the player who led Mumbai to five IPL titles between 2013 and 2023, each of his moves on the field were under the scanner. While a winning start to MI’s season in IPL 2024 could have seen experts overlook the errors, the defeat by six runs against 2022 champions Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, from a position of win, led to immense criticism from veteran cricketers. The Mumbai Indians captain, however, received backing from IPL legend and franchise’s incumbent batting coach Kieron Pollard.

One of the early criticisms that Hardik faced, from the likes of Irfan Pathan, Kevin Pietersen and Sunil Gavaskar was his bowling decision in the powerplay. Despite having a fit Jasprit Bumrah in the XI, who has an excellent record with the new ball, Hardik took over the powerplay responsibility after putting Gujarat to bat first. He bowled two of the first three overs, conceding 20 runs, as experts question the logic behind holding back Bumrah.

Although Bumrah struck in the only over he bowled in the powerplay, giving Mumbai an early breakthrough, Pollard saw nothing wrong in Hardik’s call

“You have to plan and decide what you want to do as a team. Hardik (Pandya) has also bowled with the new ball for Gujarat over the last couple of years. He swung the new ball and bowled it well, which was nothing new to us. We tried to use the advantage of the new ball swinging along. When I look at the decision made, there is nothing wrong with it, and we move on,” Pollard said in the post-match press conference.

The other decision that was criticised was Hardik coming in to bat at number seven, contrary to his usual position of No. 3 and 4 in the line-up for Gujarat Titans in the last two years.

Pollard said one can’t attribute the decision to the skipper, explaining that it was rather a collective call made by the management.

“No decision is made on full autonomy, so we can’t say it is his decision. As a team, we have plans; we talk about setting entry points for batters. The top order batted deep into the game, and we also had two power hitters to go in the back end.

“Usually, if you look at it over time, Tim (David) has finished games for us, and Hardik has done it over the years.

“So, at any point, any one of them can resurrect the situation. It didn’t happen tonight, so there will likely be a chat about who should have gone earlier.

“But all of those things are in hindsight, and as a team, we make decisions, so let’s put a stop to ‘Hardik made a decision, Hardik did this, Hardik did that’. We are a team. We make decisions collectively as one,” the West Indian said.

MI will play their next match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 27 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.