Less than three weeks after Hardik Pandya was traded to the Mumbai Indians, leaving Gujarat Titans, the all-rounder has now been named their new skipper ahead of the IPL 2024 auction, taking the reins from Rohit Sharma, who led the side brilliantly from 2013, which saw MI win 5 IPL titles and one Champions League trophy.
When Hardik Pandya was traded back to the Mumbai Indians, a franchise where he was launched and built his career from 2015 to 20201, it was felt by everyone that the 30-year-old would take over the captaincy duties from Rohit Sharma soon.
While most thought that it would happen after IPL 2024, as Rohit Sharma will eye the T20 World Cup 2024, this news of him being made the captain ahead of the IPL 2024 season has now kept the fans entertained and interested, rendering them to make conspiracy theories about Pandya demanding the captaincy straightaway before the trade.
Did Hardik Pandya demand captaincy of Mumbai Indians before the trade?
It is now widely speculated among the fans that Hardik Pandya had added a captaincy clause in his contract – whether in written or in verbal – with the Mumbai Indians before signing the trade papers last month.
Hardik Pandya, who was not retained ahead of the IPL 2022 mega-auction, led the Gujarat Titans to two consecutive IPL finals, winning one and losing the other only on the last ball.
So to return back to MI, there needed to be huge incentives for Pandya. Apart from the money – he is entitled to 50 percent of the transfer fee that MI paid GT; plus his brand endorsement prices would have soared too – it was the captaincy of the Mumbai Indians that was the biggest lure for Hardik that MI would have offered or he would have demanded – it doesn’t need to be confirmed which way it was, because it was inevitable from the moment the rumors of the trade went in the air.
