Hardik Pandya, who captained Gujarat Titans to their maiden IPL title win in 2022, has not been able to do anything significant with Mumbai Indians (MI) so far. He has faced many hot and cold moments since his return to MI as captain replacing Rohit Sharma, one of the league’s most successful franchises.
In this year’s Indian Premier League, MI have lost six out of eight matches, making their play-offs uncertain. To remain relevant in the title race, they will have to win their remaining group matches. After Mumbai Indians’ defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium, the question has been raised, “Which current retained players should MI release before the next IPL mega auction?”
Should MI keep Hardik Pandya as its captain?
This question was raised with cricket experts Pommy Mbangwa and Simon Doull during the Cricbuzz talk show. Former New Zealand cricketer and now cricket pundit and commentator Simon Doull believes that the franchise should release Hardik Pandya from the set-up before the next season.
In response to the question, Doull directly expressed concern over the captaincy of Mumbai Indians. Currently, they are placed ninth in the 10-team league with only 4 points and a net run rate of -0.784 as they have managed only 2 wins from 8 matches.
Doull believes that if the franchise decides to look beyond Hardik Pandya for the leadership role, he should be dropped from the team, as the team has performed poorly in two consecutive seasons under his leadership.
Simon Doull suggests MI to release Pandya
“My point would be this: Who is your captain next year? If they are going to change something, who will be the captain next year? If Hardik Pandya is not there, release him. Simply because I don’t know how he will perform in an environment where he has performed poorly, his team has performed poorly for three years, and then he loses his job,” said Simon Doull.
If MI decides to keep Hardik Pandya with them, but only as a fast bowling all-rounder, will it work in their favour? Dole has no doubts about Pandya’s skill. But it may be disrespectful to him if the team management keeps him in a non-leadership role.
Daul expressed concern over Pandya’s role in MI
“It may free him, it may not. It may make him feel, ‘I’ve failed.’ This could go either way. When fully fit, Hardik has been one of the best all-rounders in the game. My only issue is, if he’s going to be captain, is he willing to take a backseat, work hard and become the great player he was once again? He added.
Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, MI posted a healthy score of 243 runs in 20 overs thanks to an unbeaten 123-run knock from their opener Ryan Rickelton. Hyderabad needed only 18.4 overs to achieve the target and won the match by 6 wickets.
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