"Surya And Bumrah Stayed Loyal..." - AB de Villiers' Huge Take On Hardik Pandya Getting MI Captaincy

Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers gave a huge take on Mumbai Indians (MI) appointing Hardik Pandya as the captain in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He mentioned that one can argue that Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah stayed loyal to the franchise but the all-rounder is more experienced as a leader.

Hardik Pandya on Friday (15th December) was appointed as captain of Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. The all-rounder replaced senior Rohit Sharma, who captained the team for 10 long years and guided them to 5 titles, as a part of the transition process.

Hardik Pandya’s appointment as a captain of Mumbai Indians was not welcomed by many. Fans didn’t go easy on the franchise at all as they lashed out at the five-time champions for the way they removed Rohit Sharma from the leadership, especially after what all he did for the franchise.

Mumbai Indians fans’ even burnt their jerseys and caps following Hardik Pandya’s appointment as the captain. This was because the all-rounder left the team two years back and was the leader of the Gujarat Titans, guiding them to one title victory in 2022 and then leading them to finals in 2023.

Hardik Pandya was recently traded back to Mumbai Indians for an all-cash trade. It’s fair to say that with Rohit Sharma around no one expected him to be the captain of the team. Hence, the decision invited a lot of negative reactions.

Ab de Villiers was asked in an interaction on his YouTube channel about Hardik Pandya’s appointment as the captain of Mumbai Indians with Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah around. Replying to this, he highlighted how all-rounder has been part of the blue and gold franchise in IPL.

Ab de Villiers added that fans should welcome Hardik Pandya back to the Mumbai Indians and said that he found negative reactions related to him very strange. He explained:

“Hardik has been with Mumbai for with long long time. He was always a Mumbai boy and played for them from start of IPL. He was with them when they lifted some trophies. You can say Surya and Bumrah stayed loyal to the brand and Hardik decided to move on but he’s back.

“I found it strange that Hardik’s appointment saw very negative reactions. Mumbai Indians social platform lost around million followers, and people are upset. You should be happy about him coming back.”

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Ab de Villiers further urged fans to extend their support to Hardik Pandya. He said that if the all-rounder lifts the trophy next year then people will have no problem related to his appointment. He explained:

“I know he played two IPL seasons at Gujarat Titans, won a trophy there, made the final in another. But now he wants to comeback as a more experienced player and captain. Give a guy a bit of a boost, welcome him back in the Mumbai Indians camp. I’m pretty sure if he lifts the trophy with the rest of the team, you guys are not going have a problem with that.”

With the kind of success, Rohit Sharma has achieved as a leader of Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya will be having an added baggage of expectations. It remains to be seen how he goes about his business.