In the world of sports where players excites viewers through their performances be it their Leadership skills or playing acrobats, it is evident that one should be able to move on and pass the baton to the new upcoming talent in line just like now Hardik Pandya is the leader of MI. Hardik Pandya‘s appointment has raised a lot of eye-brows around MI fans.
One such iconic franchise in the world of cricket especially in the extravagant leagues is Ambani led franchise MUMBAI INDIANS (MI).Right from the inception of IPL since 2008 till the upcoming auction on 19th December, Mumbai Indians has being unique in their style of acquisition and retaining of players. What amuses more from a viewer point is the ability and knack of Mumbai Indians to process and select a player and develop it into the product effective to represent their respective countries in the highest form of cricket.
Many such examples are seeing in Indian cricket itself be it Sachin Tendulkar to become its first captain or Robin Singh as its coaching staff. Keeping lesser known Rahul Sanghvi as a specialist to hunt down young talents or making use of International coaches like John Wright , Mahela Jayawardene or Shane bond as their mentoring staffs.
Mumbai Indians (MI) as a franchise over the years understood the need of growth for talent and this hunger led them to conspire a leader in Rohit Sharma whom they first bought in 2010 then nurtured him for next 3 years and in 2013 in the midway handed him the reigns of the team from ably capable Ricky Ponting only to go further and win the elusive IPL title that year. The confidence and trust shown on Rohit Sharma as a captain was to the level that in the forthcoming years till 2023 Mumbai Indians had 4 more titles to their name and Rohit Sharma becoming the most successive captain of IPL history after Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
This vision of Mumbai Indians was not only limited with Rohit Sharma ,it went further and produced future superstars for India like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya who was instrumental as a young talent winning Mumbai 4 of their 5 titles. Further the allrounder has tremendous success in the year 2022 leading his side Gujarat Titans(GT) to their maiden title in the first year of inception itself and again reaching finals in the 2023 IPL season thus creating a wide buzz when he decided to return to his old franchise ahead of 2024 season of IPL.
Hardik Pandya is a proven leader- Sanjay Manjrekar
IPL 2024 has already been in the news even before the mini auction due to the trade window which stunned many cricket experts and former cricketers around the globe. Some unexpected trades raised eyebrows of excitement for the viewers of what lies ahead when the auction finally takes place. Even former cricketers didn’t resist their urge to express view points regarding the upcoming auction and supporting the player of their choice.
Former India batter now commentator Sanjay Manjrekar feels fans should look at the replacement of Rohit Sharma by Hardik Pandya as Mumbai Indians (MI) captain objectively and not emotionally. Purely on cricketing logic, Manjrekar believes the move to appoint Hardik Pandya as skipper was a sensible one from the franchise.
Hardik returned to his first franchise, Mumbai Indians (MI), in an all-cash trade from Gujarat Titans (GT), before being named the side’s captain for the upcoming IPL season.
Speaking to Star Sports after the opening ODI of the India-South Africa series, Manjrekar felt Hardik is an in-form captain, and the decision made total sense.
“One should not be thinking sentimentally or emotionally about Rohit Sharma. I think it’s a good move as Hardik Pandya is a proven leader and has had a great run. So, he is your in-form T20 captain and player. Rohit has been around for a long time. So, it makes a lot of cricketing sense to have somebody like Hardik,” said Sanjay Manjrekar.
“I just hope he doesn’t feel the pressure of how the transfer happened and Mumbai Indians backing him so much.” he added.
It would be now be interesting to see how Mumbai Indians now perform under the leadership of Hardik Pandya as following their back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020, Mumbai Indians (MI) missed the playoffs the next two seasons and were ousted in the Eliminator last season.