Former South African captain AB de Villiers strongly feels that Rohit Sharma and Mumbai Indians would have already decided to give Hardik Pandya the captaincy reins of MI for the IPL 2024 season.
In an interesting turn of events, which barely anyone saw coming, two days out from the deadline of the IPL 2024 retention date, rumors started to float about Hardik Pandya returning to Mumbai Indians and leaving Gujarat Titans, where he had massive success in the last two seasons.
The rumors then turned into solid news and now is just away from an official confirmation as on Saturday ESPNcricinfo reported that “the trade is an all-cash deal comprising Mumbai paying INR 15 crore ($1.8 million approx.) as Hardik’s salary and an undisclosed transfer fee to Titans. Hardik stands to earn upto 50% of the transfer fee.”
This massive fee and the prospect of leading his first IPL franchise, where he spent 7 seasons winning 4 IPL titles, would have lured Pandya in.
In his YouTube video, AB de Villiers said he feels Rohit Sharma will only play as a batsman and play with more freedom without the burden of captaincy, giving the duties to Hardik Pandya.
“I have a funny feeling Rohit is going to let him (Hardik) captain. Rohit carries a lot of pressure of captaining Team India. Maybe that is going to be the move,” AB de Villiers said.
“Hardik Pandya feels his time there is done at GT: AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers reckons Hardik Pandya must have felt he’s achieved plenty already at Gujarat Titans and now wants to go back to the highly successful Mumbai Indians, which offers him a massive fan-following and an already built IPL legacy. Hardik is also in the reckoning for India captaincy in white-ball cricket after Rohit Sharma.
“It’s a big news for Mumbai Indians. Hardik was a big player for Mumbai for many years. He loved playing at the Wankhede Stadium. He won the trophy with GT and then also went to the final (next season). Hardik probably feels his time there is done,” the South African added.
Watch it here:
The deadline for all franchises to announce the list of retained, released, and traded players is November 26 at 4 pm IST.
