'No Longer A Franchise Captain But You Still Want To Be India's Captain'- Aakash Chopra Rips Apart Hardik Pandya

Former India batsman Aakash Chopra has criticized Hardik Pandya for moving back to Mumbai Indians despite being the captain of Gujarat Titans. The India allrounder, on Sunday (November 26), sealed the biggest trade in the history of the competition as the highly-anticipated transfer came to a dramatic end.

While speculations were rife that Hardik Pandya was on his way to Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Titans stunned one and all but announced that the allrounder had been retained by them. With the retention deadline passed, it was believed that the saga had finally come to an end. However, Mumbai Indians did not give up and went on to seal the deal after the conclusion of the retention deadline.

Hardik Pandya started his IPL career with Mumbai Indians back in 2015 and played seven seasons for the franchise, helping them win four titles. However, the franchise decided to release him before the mega auction in 2022. Gujarat Titans had gone on to secure the allrounder’s services and appointed him as captain.

In his maiden season with the Gujarat-based outfit, Hardik Pandya led the team to the IPL title before leading it to the final this year. After two highly successful seasons, not many were expecting the India star to leave Gujarat Titans but he has now decided to don the Mumbai Indians jersey once again.

Aakash Chopra unimpressed by Hardik Pandya’s decision:

Aakash Chopra has made it clear that he is not at all impressed by Hardik Pandya’s decision to leave Gujarat Titans for Mumbai Indians despite being the captain. The former cricketer-turned-commentator has said that leaving the captain’s role and sealing a move to Mumbai Indians where he is unlikely to lead in IPL 2024 wouldn’t look good on the player’s CV.

“The one thing that won’t look good on Hardik’s CV is that he left Mumbai because he wanted to become a captain. You went to Gujarat and then became the Indian captain. You will no longer be a franchise captain now but you still want to be India’s captain – it doesn’t sit right,” Aakash Chopra said in his YouTube show on Monday.

“It doesn’t look right whether you look from optics or any other angle, that you are not your franchise’s captain but are India’s captain in the T20 World Cup. It doesn’t sound right but so be it,” he added.