In a historic move, the Mumbai Indians named Hardik Pandya, who is returning from a 10-year stint as captain, captain of the team for the 2024 Indian Premier League. After two years, Hardik, who captained the Gujarat Titans to the 2022 IPL title, was traded back to MI last month. He will take over as the Indian Premier League’s joint-most successful captain ever. Both Rohit and MS Dhoni have won the most titles for their teams—five total—but Sharma stands out because he did so over ten seasons as opposed to MSD’s twelve.
It is a component of creating a lasting legacy and adhering to MI’s future-ready philosophy. The Mumbai Indians have always had outstanding leadership, from Sachin to Harbhajan and Ricky to Rohit, who have all worked to build the team for the future while also contributing to the team’s immediate success. Mahela Jayawardene stated, “Hardik Pandya will take over as captain of the Mumbai Indians for the 2024 Indian Premier League in keeping with this philosophy.
All rumors regarding Hardik’s position with the team have been put to rest by the announcement made by the former captain of Sri Lanka. Hardik was anticipated to take on a larger role after leading GT to the IPL championship the previous season and a runner-up position in the IPL 2023. However, the question of how big has been resolved. Though unofficially, Hardik has already replaced Rohit as India’s T20I captain. Now, he will lead MI into a new era with the hopes of greater and better things. MI won five titles under Rohit between 2013 and 2020, but it appears that a change of leadership was inevitable given the team’s dismal performances in 2022 and 2023.
Midway through the 2013 Indian Premier League, Rohit succeeded Ricky Ponting as captain of Mumbai Indians. In the end, the team defeated Chennai Super Kings to win their first-ever title. With 6211 runs or 3986 runs, Rohit is the fourth-highest run scorer in IPL history. He has scored 129.37 SR over 157 innings while captain, including 25 fifty-score runs. Among IPL captains, Rohit’s total ranks third, behind only Kohli’s 4994 runs and Dhoni’s 4660.
Hardik, his replacement, joined the Mumbai Indians in 2015 and has since amassed 1476 runs and 42 wickets in the IPL. Pandya, who cost INR 10 lakh to sign as an uncapped player, quickly established himself on the squad and participated in MI’s championship teams in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020.
Between April 24, 2013, when Ponting resigned as MI captain, and 2023, Rohit guided Mumbai to the most victories of any captain during that time, 87 out of 158 IPL games. Dhoni has 82 victories to rank second. With 10 victories in 13 IPL playoff games, including finals, he has also won more as captain than Dhoni (9 out of 15). In five of the 13 times that MI had advanced to the summit match, they had never lost an IPL final under Rohit.
“We would like to thank Rohit Sharma for his outstanding leadership; since 2013, he has led the Mumbai Indians in a truly remarkable manner. In addition to bringing the team unmatched success, his leadership has cemented his status as one of the best captains in IPL history, Jayawardene continued.
This makes Rohit’s contribution to the franchise even more important. Rohit’s 36-year-old involvement in Twenty20 cricket matches for both MI and India has drawn criticism. In actuality, Rohit’s best season to date—268 runs from 14 games at an average of 19.14—was the previous one, in which MI finished fifth and missed out on the Playoffs. While the next season, the IPL 2023, was a little better with 332 runs from 16 innings, there is concerning information to consider: Rohit has failed to score a half-century in the last two IPL tournaments, casting doubt on his ability to be a force in T20 cricket.
“MI turned into one of the most adored and prosperous teams in history. To further strengthen MI, we will welcome his advice and experience both on and off the pitch. Jayawardene was quoted as saying, “We welcome Hardik Pandya as the new captain of MI and wish him all the very best,” in the groundbreaking release from MI.