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This IPL, their careers are again at a crossroads, and they will need to go back to the drawing board. Pandya won’t have much time as he will join the Indian team for the T20 World Cup, while Rahul has ample to think about the snub from the T20 format.
Pandya returned to his alma mater-Mumbai Indians-as a skipper after two successful seasons with Gujarat Titans which saw them become champions on debut in 2022 and finished runners-up last year. Rahul was looking to take the Lucknow Super Giants a step ahead than two exits at the eliminator stage.
But things didn’t go according to plan. Pandya was heckled by fans in the initial stages as they were angry with the fact that he was roped in as skipper to replace the much loved and successful Rohit Sharma. It affected his performance in the beginning, but he has bounced back well with the ball in the second half of the season and has delivered his best effort since 2019. He has 11 wickets in 13 matches with the best of 3-31 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, which is a good sign for India.
The same can’t be said about his batting, though, which has seen him score just 200 runs in 13 matches with the highest score being 46. Pandya is known for providing finishing touches to the innings. That’s how he made his name at the Wankhede Stadium. At GT, he turned into a middle-order mainstay, but on his return to MI, he wasn’t sure of where he wanted to bat and thus the low numbers.
Rahul has hardly put a foot wrong and has scored 465 runs in 13 matches but as an opener, his strike rate of 136.34 has been questioned. The animated chat with owner Sanjiv Goenka, after their humiliating defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he stood like a mannequin went viral on social media. It was played down but the damage was done and further dented the skipper’s confidence.
LSG assistant coach Lance Klusener jumped to Rahul’s defence stating he hasn’t received enough support from rest of the batters. “He’s had some great performances. He’s had to rebuild a lot of the times. We haven’t allowed him to play his natural game. The batting group around him haven’t done him too many favours either,” Klusener said.
Rahul can show what he can dish out with the bat at the Wankhede on Friday where he will square-off against Pandya’s MI. He has sweet memories of the venue where he has scored 579 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate of almost 150 and with two centuries and four fifties.
With both teams out of playoff contention, they will be playing for pride. MI will hope they don’t finish last for the second time in three seasons. For LSG, it was a season of missed opportunities which saw them start off brightly, winning five of their first eight matches before fizzling out.
