JOIN USClose on the heels of Angelo Mathews stepping down as the captain of the Pune Warriors for the rest of this IPL season, their opener Robin Uthappa slammed the team management for frequent change of personnel at the helm.
Since their inception in 2011, the troubled Warriors have had six captains with three of them being named this year alone. While Yuvraj Singh led them in their first year of IPL, Sourav Ganguly and Michael Clarke skippered the side the previous season. Mathews led in the first four matches this year before Ross Taylor captained them to their second and last win against Super Kings in Chennai as the Sri Lankan wasn’t allowed to play in the Tamil Nadu capital. Mathews took over in the next match in Pune against Sunrisers Hyderabad but after that game was replaced by Australian batsman Aaron Finch who has continued since then.
“I have to be honest here and that’s (captaincy) definitely one of the issues (bothering us),” remarked Uthappa, whose bruising 45-ball 75 threatened to pull off a rare win for the hosts. “We have never stuck to a winning combination. It’s a bit disappointing for me as a player to see the winning combination change. We beat Super Kings, a very strong team, at their home ground and we came back and changed that combination. I have never seen that happen and I think that kind of shook things little bit for us,” revealed the opener when asked if frequent changes at the helm affected their performance.