After getting the Mumbai Indians captaincy, Hardik Pandya is very likely to get the India white-ball captaincy too in the coming months.
It is very much certain now that Rohit Sharma is no more the Mumbai Indians captain, he’s unlikely to be India’s skipper for next year’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. Worse case situation for Rohit: Rohit Sharma may not even be selected in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 is he doesn’t show good form in the shortest format in the IPL.
On Friday, just four days before the IPL 2024 auction. Hardik Pandya was named the new Mumbai Indians captain, set to lead them from IPL 2024. This ended the decade-long captaincy tenure of Rohit Sharma, who had taken over the captaincy from Ricky Ponting mid-season in IPL 2013 and propelled the side to their maiden title in 2013. Rohit delivered four more titles after that.
However, with Rohit being 36 years old, MI decided to invest in Hardik Pandya as their captain for at least the next 4-5 years. Plus, Rohit’s numbers with the bat in the last few IPL seasons, too, have been disappointing.
Will Hardik Pandya be the new India T20I captain for T20 World Cup 2024?
After taking the MI captaincy reins, it is looking very likely that Hardik Pandya will captain India in the T20 World Cup 2024. A report in Cricbuzz says that “there are also suggestions that he will be anointed skipper for the T20 World Cup in June too.”
The T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and the USA will follow immediately after the IPL 2024 concludes.
The squad for the T20 World Cup will be picked around the end of April. This means that Rohit Sharma will need to perform well for the first month of the IPL at least to see himself getting picked in the T20 World Cup squad. He is averaging only 20 in last two IPL seasons.