Mumbai Indians (MI) now declared Hardik Pandya as their new captain who will replace the one of the best captains in IPL, Rohit Sharma.
Hardik was recently traded from Gujarat Titans (GT) to MI, and after his joining the speculations were there that he might be the new leader of the team. And the speculations went right and now he will be leading the men in blue.
Rohit has a great captaincy record in IPL as under his leadership team won the title 5 times (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020). But the last three seasons (2021, 2022 and 2023) were not as good for them as they were unable to make their place into the playoffs. He led the team in 163 matches in which he won 91 and lost 68 games while 4 of them were tied.
Mumbai Indians, global head of performance, Mahela Jayawardene, said,
“It is part of legacy building and staying true to the MI philosophy of being future ready. Mumbai Indians have always been blessed with exceptional leadership right from Sachin to Harbhajan and Ricky to Rohit, who while contributing to the immediate success have always had an eye on strengthening the team for the future. It is keeping with this philosophy that Hardik Pandya will be Captain of Mumbai Indians for the IPL 2024 season.
We Express our gratitude to Rohit Sharma for his exceptional leadership. His tenure as the captain of the Mumbai Indians 2013 has been nothing short of Extraordinary. His leadership has not only brought unparalleled success to the team but has also solidified his place as one of the finest captains in the history of the IPL.
Under his guidance MI became one of the most successful and love teams ever. We will look forward to his guidance and experience on and off the field to form the stand then MI. We welcome Hardik Pandya as the new captain of MI and wish him all the very best.”
Rohit has in total 6 IPL trophies to his name (5 MI and 1 Deccan Chargers). As a leader only MS Dhoni has the same number of titles. Under his guidance only the Mumbai team tasted the final victory when he took captaincy in a mid-way from Ricky Ponting in 2013 and made his team the winner for the very first time in IPL.
On the other hand, Hardik did leadership for Gujarat in which he made them champion in the inaugural season of the team in 2022 and then again took his team to the final in the 2023 but unfortunately lost the final from CSK. Therefore in the two years of captaincy he showed some great decisions which made Mumbai to make him their skipper.