Published: Mar 20, 2024, 02:07 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 20, 2024, 02:08 PM (IST)
Hardik Pandya will captain the Mumbai Indians in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, which begins on Friday, March 22. Hardik replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain when MI traded him from the Gujarat Titans before the IPL 2024 player auction. The 30-year-old led GT to IPL victory in their maiden season in 2022, then to the finals last season, when they were defeated by Chennai Super Kings (CSK). While MI’s decision to dismiss Rohit as captain drew much criticism, former Australia batter Tom Moody described Hardik as a proven “performer” and predicted that the all-rounder will gain backing from his teammates in the following season.
“He has got a team that will back up and take away the pressure of inconsistent performances. He will have the support of the Indian and overseas players because he is a highly respected cricketer and a performer as an all-rounder,” Moody said on ESPNcricinfo.
However, Moody cautioned Hardik that captaincy becomes tough when you start losing matches, and people would start pointing out the mistakes in the decision-making.
“But, captaincy can be a completely different game once you lose two or three games and suddenly they pick holes out of your leadership, they pick holes out of the decisions you make,” the former SRH head coach added.
“When you are winning, you can make the craziest decisions and still people build them up to being genius strokes. Hardik has the credentials as the Gujarat Titans leader, he is tactically sound and he will be supported by all the senior players, both Indian and overseas,” he said
