IPL 2024: Amidst all the booing and criticism for Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya, former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary reckons the management could again hand over the captaincy to Rohit Sharma. Tiwary made the bizarre claim while he was in conversation with Cricbuzz after MI’s 6 wicket loss against Rajasthan Royals.
Touted as one of the game-changing moves by Mumbai Indians (MI) ahead of the TATA IPL 2024, Hardik Pandya’s trade back to MI has certainly not yielded fruitful results for the team as of now. The team has undergone three losses in a row, at the start of the tournament.
MI recently lost to Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Wankhede Stadium by 6 wickets. In what was a humiliating outing for the batters, Mumbai Indians could only manage 125 runs in 20 overs. Their innings saw three golden ducks, all thanks to Trent Boult’s brilliant bowling display at the Wankhede.
Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians turned up for the fixture against Rajasthan Royals with two losses on their back. The team had lost to Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their prior games.
Being a home game, MI were expected to make use of the advantage, but things went haywire for them as their batting unit collapsed like a house of cards.
Besides the on-field humiliation, Mumbai Indians (MI) has also faced a lot of flak from the fans off the field for their decision to sack captain Rohit Sharma.
Furthermore, to fuel the criticism, Hardik Pandya hasn’t yet shown his abilities neither as a cricketer nor as a leader. His captaincy in the first three games remained vulnerable and mediocre. Neither his batting has yielded the intended result, nor his bowling.
Rohit Sharma could be back as MI Captain: Manoj Tiwary
Former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary said Mumbai Indians don’t hesitate in taking bold calls for the team. Just like they decided to trade Hardik Pandya and hand him over the reins over Rohit Sharma, who has won five titles for the team, the team could trace a few steps back and re-appoint Rohit Sharma as the leader.
“Mumbai’s captaincy could be handed back to Rohit Sharma. What I understand is that the owners of Mumbai Indians don’t hesitate in making decisions. They made the call of taking the captaincy from Rohit and giving it to Hardik Pandya despite Rohit winning five IPL titles for them,” said Tiwary.
“Changing the captain is a very big call. They have not picked up a single point this season. The captaincy is also all over the place, it’s not just bad luck and the captaincy has been very good, but that’s not the case. The captaincy has not been great,” he added.
Fortunately for Mumbai Indians (MI), they have a week-long time to cut the outside noise before they again turn up for an IPL game. Their next outing will be against Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Wankhede Stadium on April 7.
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