Hilarious memes exploded on the internet after Gautam Gambhir “owned” South African legend AB de Villiers following his controversial comments on Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya after the franchise had a disastrous run in the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“It's not important what experts are saying, it's their job to say something or the other. My opinion has always been that you judge someone's captaincy by his team's performance. If MI had performed well (this year), all experts would have been praising him. Today MI have not performed well and that's why everyone is talking about it,” Gautam Gambhir said in a conversation with Sportskeeda.

“It's important to realise that Hardik Pandya has come from some other franchise so it takes time, give him some time. Suddenly, you expect him to deliver at Mumbai, after captaining for two years at Gujarat. He could have delivered, I am not saying he couldn't have but if he hasn't, it's fine, give him a bit more time,” the 2011 ODI World Cup and 2007 T20 World Cup winner added.

“Judging him every day, every match, everything is not right. Those experts who have criticised him, they should see their own performances when they have captained a side. Whether it's AB de Villiers or Kevin Pietersen. I don't think in their career there is any performance of leadership, nothing. If you go and see their records, it’s worse than any other leader. So, you should compare oranges to oranges, not apples to oranges,” Gautam Gambhir explained.

With Gautam Gambhir underlining that AB de Villiers was not fit to comment on Hardik Pandya, given that he never won the IPL trophy despite spending over a decade in the competition, Hardik Pandya's supporters on X praised the southpaw for not mincing his words on the matter.

AB de Villiers, who was one of the explosive batters in the IPL during his long stint with Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bengaluru, recently opined that Hardik Pandya carries a fake personality on the field and his leadership is ego-driven.

“Hardik Pandya's captaincy style is quite bravado. It's ego driven in a way, chest out, but when you play with a lot of experienced players who've been around for ages, they don't buy into that. It worked for a young GT team,” AB de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

“I don't think how he walks on the field is always genuine, but he has decided that is his way of captaincy. It (Hardik Pandya's captaincy) worked at GT, where it was a younger team. Sometimes, inexperienced players love to follow that kind of leadership,” the former South Africa skipper added.

As his remarks sparked a massive row, AB de Villiers came up with a clarification, stating that his statement was misunderstood.

“I very clearly stated and I will state this again — I absolutely love the way Hardik Pandya plays his game. I love the way he captains. All I can say is, his style of captaincy is something that he has certainly worked on. It's not something that you can just walk out of the door and you are a brave captain,” Ab de Villiers stressed.

“Why I said it's always not genuine is because I played exactly the same way. I was not the soft-spoken, genuine AB de Villiers that I was at my home. The guy you saw on the field was in a way ‘an act'. Sometimes, you have to put up a front and show the opposition that you are a force to reckon with. That's what Hardik Pandya does. I am saying that style is not always the easiest style to adapt to, especially for some senior players,” he concluded.

It is worth pointing out that Hardik Pandya rejoined Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2024 and was immediately named as the captain of the side in place of the team's most successful skipper Rohit Sharma.

Though the management of the Mumbai Indians, including head coach Mark Boucher backed Hardik Pandya's appointment as the leader of the franchise, this move triggered a massive backlash on social media, with a large chunk of the team's fanbase exiting the official channels of the side from Instagram, Twitter and other popular networks.

To make matters worse for him, Mumbai Indians failed to gel as a unit under his captaincy.

The team, which was once a powerhouse in the IPL, currently stands at the bottom of the table with a game in hand.

Furthermore, Hardik Pandya was welcomed on the pitch with boos and jeers, something which seemed to have impacted his performance throughout the season in IPL 2024.

In 13 games, Hardik Pandya could only accumulate 200 runs at a sub-standard average of 18.18. His 200 runs do not feature a fifty or a century and his highest score in the tournament only reads as 46.

With the ball, his numbers aren't great either. Hardik Pandya grabbed 11 wickets at an economy rate of 10.59 in an equal number of matches, often disappointing his team during crunch situations.