Kolkata : Indian and Mumbai Indians all rounder Hardik Pandya is set to continue as the franchise’s captain in IPL 2025.
Mumbai, under Hardik finished at the bottom last year. Hardik failed both as a captain and player with his poor form. He was traded in from Gujarat Titans and replaced 5 times IPL winning skipper Rohit as captain. He scored only 216 runs at a strike rate of 143 and took 11 wickets with an economy of 10.75.
Critics flooded him with their criticisms and was booed in all Stadiums but he answered all of them with stellar performances in ICC T20 WC 2024 winning campaign.
MI on October 31 announced their 5 retentions – Hardik Pandya, Surya Kumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma.
In Indian team, Surya Kumar Yadav took over the T20I captaincy spot and it seemed like his days as MI captain will be over soon.
However, not only did MI retain him but also handed him the captaincy, showing faith and considering him as long term leader option.
“It’s been fantastic. I think I have received a lot of love back,” Hardik said in another MI video. “It means the world to me, reason being, as I’ve always mentioned, my journey started here. Everything I’ve achieved in my life has been part of Mumbai Indians. Playing again, every year is a special year, and this year is going to be an even more special year. We remember as a group 2013, 2015, 2017, ’19 and ’20. I think all of our fans know what happened on those years and we are going to come back in 2025 even stronger than that. You lose and win on the ground.
“Five people who have cherished good memories together. We are five fingers but one fist. That’s how I look at it. We are going to come all guns blazing. Brotherhood, friendship, and at the same point of time we are going to back each other no matter what happens.”
Mahela Jayawardena also joined MI as head coach having successfully coached them previously in 2017-2022 , winning 2 titles.
“We had an extensive discussion. These 4 senior guys led those discussions. Obviously, whatever happened last season, we connected about moving forward. It was crucial for us to align in that one direction. So coaching staff, owners, management and these 4 guys played a major role. Hardik’s been appointed captain, and we had that conversation with them [senior players], and there’s the role every retention of ours will play,” Jayawardene added.
