Sunil Gavaskar, the cricket maestro, has expressed his support for the Mumbai Indians’ choice to appoint Hardik Pandya as the captain for the upcoming Indian Premier League 2024 season.
Mumbai Indians have elected to designate Hardik Pandya as the captain for IPL 2024, a move that has attracted diverse reactions within the cricket world. Shedding light on the decision, Mahela Jayawardene, the team’s former coach and Global Head of Performance, noted that this shift in leadership is a strategic step towards ensuring the squad is “future-ready.”
The expectation for a change in captaincy heightened, especially with Mumbai Indians capturing Hardik Pandya through a big trade transaction during the IPL 2024 auction on December 19.
To offer background, MI had released Hardik before the IPL 2022 mega auction, and thereafter, he headed the Gujarat Titans, a newly founded team in 2022. The success of Hardik as an IPL captain, guiding Gujarat Titans to victory in 2022 and reaching the final in 2023, presumably played a major influence in the decision to alter the team’s leadership.
During a discussion on Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar shared his perspective on Rohit Sharma, noting that he observed signs of fatigue in Rohit’s demeanor while leading the Mumbai Indians in the past two seasons. Gavaskar highlighted that this exhaustion could be attributed to Rohit’s dual role as the captain for India across all three formats, a responsibility he took on from the start of 2022.
Sunil Gavaskar said: “We shouldn’t go into rights and wrongs. But, the decision they have taken is for the benefit of the team. In the last two years, Rohit’s contribution, even with the bat, has dipped a little bit. Earlier, he used to score big, but in the last two years they finished No. 9 or No. 10 the year before last year and in the last year they qualified for the playoffs,”
“But we missed seeing the mojo in Rohit Sharma that we used to see in the previous few years. Maybe, he was a little tired because of playing continuous cricket, he was a little tired because of captaincy, leading India and the franchise,” he further added.
Gavaskar expressed confidence in Pandya’s ability to lead Mumbai Indians to success, citing his impressive captaincy with Gujarat Titans over the last two seasons as evidence. Pandya’s leadership skills have garnered praise from all quarters, and Gavaskar believes he can bring substantial success to the Mumbai Indians. “I feel that the decision, they have kept in mind that Hardik is a young captain who has produced results. Hardik has led Gujarat to the finals twice, and he led them to the title in 2022. I think they have made him captain by considering all this,” he said.
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