'He’s not wrong, I was a terrible captain' - Kevin Pietersen on Gautam Gambhir's 'leadership' remark

Gautam Gambhir, former Indian cricketer and current mentor of the Kolkata Knight Riders, recently defended Mumbai Indians' skipper Hardik Pandya, who faced significant backlash regarding his leadership style and manner from Kevin Pietersen and AB de Villiers.

Paradoxically, Pietersen and de Villiers both have relatively poor records as captains, with the former winning only 11 out of 36 completed games and the latter 75 out of 133. Following his return to the Mumbai Indians setup, where he replaced Rohit Sharma as captain, Pandya has only four victories in 13 matches so far.

Also read: Gautam Gambhir hits back at AB de Villiers, Kevin Pietersen over Hardik Pandya criticism

Gambhir, however, remarked that those criticising Pandya don't have notable leadership records themselves. He highlighted that despite Pietersen and de Villiers being exceptional players, their leadership credentials lacked any concrete achievements.

"When they themselves did captaincy [were captains], what were their own performances like? I do not think that whether it's Kevin Pietersen or AB de Villiers, there has ever been performances in their careers from a leadership point of view. Nothing. If you look up their records, it would be worse than any other leader,” Gambhir told Sportskeeda.

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Pietersen responded to the video clip on X, embracing the statement made by the southpaw as he saw the funny side of it. "He's not wrong. I was a terrible captain," Pietersen wrote with multiple laughter emojis.

Kevin Pietersen's track record as captain

Almost four years post making his ODI debut for England, the spunky Pietersen led England during their five-match ODI series against India away from home. Even though he scored 225 runs across the series, England ended up getting whitewashed. He had a 40% win record in the 50-over format, with two out of the 12 matches he skippered in ending in no result. 

As far as the longest format of the game is concerned, Pietersen has a win, draw, and loss each to show. Pietersen's IPL record spread across two franchises, Royal Challengers Bangalore (now Royal Challengers Bengaluru) and Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals), is nothing notable, he could win only three of the 17 matches he played as a captain.