IPL 2024: Hardik Pandya To Be Ruled Out Of The Tournament, Mumbai Indians Left Embarrassed

Mumbai Indians’ newly announced skipper Hardik Pandya could miss the upcoming IPL 2024 due to injury concerns. He sustained an ankle injury during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match between India and Bangladesh and has been out of cricketing action since then. Hardik was traded from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians ahead of the auction and was announced as the new skipper of the Mumbai-based franchise shortly after the trade.

Hardik Pandya was set to replace Rohit Sharma as the skipper, but now his participation in this year’s IPL is doubtful. He is set to miss the upcoming T20I series against Afghanistan. If Hardik is ruled out for the 2024 edition of the IPL, then it will be a huge loss for Mumbai Indians given they removed Rohit Sharma to offer the leadership role to Hardik Pandya.

Hardik Pandya made his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians and has played seven seasons of IPL for the Mumbai-based franchise. He was released before the 2022 season as the newly arrived Gujarat Titans offered him a captaincy stint. After joining Gujarat Titans, Pandya led the Ahmedabad-based franchise to back-to-back IPL finals, including a title-winning campaign in their debut season.

Hardik Pandya has been out of cricketing action since his injury in the ODI World Cup. He missed the recently concluded white-ball leg of the South Africa tour, and the T20I series against Australia. In his absence, Suryakumar Yadav led India to a 4-1 series win over Australia, while the T20I series against Australia ended being levelled on 1-1.

Who Will Lead The Mumbai Indians If Hardik Pandya Is Ruled Out Of IPL 2024

Mumbai Indians will be facing a huge dilemma if Hardik misses the IPL because they were already being heavily criticised for removing Rohit Sharma from his role as the skipper of the team. They will certainly not want to go back to Rohit Sharma but no one can deny the fact that Rohit Sharma has been the most successful captain in the history of IPL.

The other options for Mumbai Indians include Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah as both of them have led the Indian team some or the other time. Suryakumar Yadav recently led the Indian team in the shortest format where they won the series against Australia at home by 4-1 and drew the T20I series against South Africa 1-1. Jasprit Bumrah has led India in one Test and two T20Is.

Mumbai Indians had a great auction as they acquired some good players in a very low-budget purse. They bought South African pacer Gerald Coetzee as their first buy. Coetzee went to MI for INR 5 crores. The franchise further strengthened their fast bowling by adding Dilshan Madhushanka and Nuwan Thushara to the squad. They also roped in Mohammad Nabi at his base price, adding a spin-bowling all-rounder to the squad.

Mumbai Indians are five-time champions of IPL but all their titles came under captain Rohit Sharma. It will be interesting to see who will lead the Mumbai-based franchise if Hardik Pandya fails to recover from his injury in time for the IPL 2024.