Lucknow: The most talked about and controversial topic of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 has been the removal of Rohit Sharma from the captaincy of Mumbai Indians (MI). The franchise removed Rohit, who had made the team champion 5 times, and in his place appointed star all-rounder Hardik Pandya as its new captain. However, this decision of the team did not prove to be correct and Mumbai is at the bottom in the points table this season. Now the biggest question arises whether MI will retain Hardik for the next year.
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Former Indian batsman Manoj Tiwari has given his reaction regarding the retention of Hardik. He simply says that Pandya should not be retained and Mumbai should let him go in the auction. Let us tell you that the star all-rounder has made many mistakes in captaincy this season and many veteran players have also criticized him for this. In such a situation, during the conversation on Cricbuzz, Tiwari has given a big statement about Hardik.
He said, “If I look at it from Mumbai's perspective, I would not like to retain him. If we look at MI's first playing eleven, I see two excellent options as captain. Although, he has done good work for GT and has also won the title, but Pandya has not been accepted as a player and captain and he has not been welcomed as such. For me, Mumbai has two great players for captaincy, which include Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav. If we look at this time, Surya is ahead. I would not like to retain Hardik at any cost.”
If we look at the performance of the MI captain this season, he has disappointed with both bat and ball. Apart from this, many mistakes have been made in captaincy, due to which Mumbai is out of the race for top-4 today. The 30-year-old has played a total of 12 matches so far this season, in which he has scored only 198 runs at a poor average of 19.80 and strike rate of 147.76. During this period he has not scored any half-century and his best score has been 46 runs. Apart from this, he has also taken 11 wickets in bowling but Hardik has spent runs at an economy of 10.59.
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