Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen addressed criticism of his captaincy, which was prompted by Gautam Gambhir’s remarks about the leadership qualities of cricket legends.
Known for being outspoken, Gambhir defended Hardik Pandya’s captaincy after Pietersen and former South African cricketer AB de Villiers questioned it. In a Sportskeeda interview, Gambhir said,
“How did they do when they took on the role of a captain themselves? I do not believe that either AB de Villiers or Kevin Pietersen have ever displayed leadership qualities in their careers. Nothing at all. Their record is worse than that of any other leader, if you check it.”
Pandya’s leadership style had previously drawn criticism from AB de Villiers, who described it as egocentric. Pietersen reprimanded Pandya for his excessive smiling and showing happiness when he is not while Leading Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024.
“Aside from his personal scores, I don’t believe that AB de Villiers has ever captained a game in the Indian Premier League. From a team perspective, I don’t believe he has accomplished anything. Hardik Pandya has won the IPL as a captain. Accordingly, you need to compare oranges only to oranges and not apples to oranges,” he continued.
Pietersen responded to Gambhir’s criticism via Twitter and agreed on Gambhir’s comments against him. He wrote, “He’s not wrong. I was a terrible captain!!!”
Pietersen has captained the England cricket team in addition to two IPL teams, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals (previously Delhi Daredevils). With just two victories in six games as RCB captain in 2009 and a poor bottom place finish for Delhi in 2014, he had a dismal outing as a captain.
