Rohit Sharma was effusive in praise for his former Mumbai Indians teammate, all-rounder Hardik Pandya who has now become the captain of the new franchise Gujarat Titans. Gujarat bought the services of Pandya for 15 crore after he had been released from MI.
Hardik Pandya made his IPL debut in 2015 and won four titles with Mumbai Indians; he played a crucial role in the last four title wins for the franchise, an aspect that Rohit Sharma reflected upon on Wednesday, when he attended the pre-tournament press conference alongside MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene.
Rohit Sharma highly put forward Hardik’s impact on MI’s success over the years, but pointed out that the retention rules allowed them to retain a maximum of three Indians – who apart from Sharma were Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav.
“Yes, Hardik was a very key member for us, without a doubt. But, again, it’s the [retention] rules that don’t allow us to keep all the players. His contribution to this franchise will never be ignored or never be unseen. I think, he played a huge impact and a huge role for us to get the success we had while he was here,” Rohit Sharma said.
Rohit Sharma said that Hardik played his role to the tee at Mumbai but now will take on a new challenge of captaincy at Gujarat.
“But, it’s a different challenge for him now – he’s the captain of another franchise – but being here [with MI] whatever he did in his role, he played that to perfection. Not many people can play that role…but again there are certain rules and regulations that we need to keep a check on which doesn’t allow us to have as many players as we want,” the MI skipper added.
In 92 IPL games for Mumbai, Hardik averaged 27 while striking at 153 in addition to taking 42 wickets; he, however, didn’t bowl a single ball in the last two IPL seasons as he struggled with his back injury issues and his form with the bat also dipped last year.
