All the existing franchises announced the list of retained players on November 30th. There were plenty of surprises with regards to the decision by a few franchises. It can be hard for them to make amends since two more teams are in the fray from next season. Meanwhile, in this article, we take a look at the reason why five-time champions Mumbai Indians didn’t retain Hardik Pandya ahead of IPL 2022 auctions.
Mumbai Indians release their star all-rounder
Mumbai Indians did not have a memorable campaign in IPL 2021. Nevertheless, they are still the most successful franchise with five trophies. They had pulled off a few master-strokes ahead of IPL 2018, which had enabled them to do well in the just-concluded cycle. One of them was retaining Hardik Pandya.
However, MI has released their star all-rounder ahead of IPL 2022. Instead, Suryakumar Yadav has been retained by the franchise. Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard are the other retentions.
The biggest reason why Mumbai Indians didn’t retain Hardik Pandya
However, it was on the expected lines that Mumbai Indians would release Hardik Pandya. It has been a while since Hardik has fired with the bat. While he did well in IPL 2020, he was a failure in IPL 2021. Most importantly, Hardik’s X-Factor is that he can offer four good overs of medium pace. However, due to injury issues, Hardik has not been able to do that. The Baroda all-rounder did not bowl in IPL 2021.
Hardik has been having off-field issues as well. Although Mumbai has backed him, Hardik’s recent troubles could have been on the back of the mind. Of course, Mumbai might target to re-hire him, but there will be immense competition for the player. Most other teams will target a player like Hardik, who has great finishing capabilities apart from being experienced in the competition.
