No captaincy change in MI right reveals Indian legend as tension flares up between Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma

Hardik Pandya started a new journey in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. After leading Gujarat Titans in the last two seasons, he made a sensational return to Mumbai Indians before replacing Rohit Sharma as the captain of the team for IPL 2024.

For a player to become the captain of the franchise which gave him his very first IPL contract must have been a special feeling.

However, the dream is fast turning out to be a nightmare as nothing is going right for Hardik Pandya. Under his captaincy, Mumbai Indians have lost their opening three games and are currently languishing at the bottom of the points table.

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They have failed to deliver as a unit so far and could very well miss out on the playoffs if they fail to turn things around in an extraordinary manner. In the first game against Gujarat Titans, they failed to chase down 169 runs before conceding 277 against Sunrisers Hyderabad and losing it by 31 runs. In their third game, they could only score 125/9 against Rajasthan Royals and lost the game by six wickets.

Virender Sehwag backs Hardik Pandya:

With Hardik Pandya under immense pressure, former India batsman Virender Sehwag has leapt in his defence. The legendary batsman has backed the allrounder and Mumbai Indians to turn things around in IPL 2024. Sehwag's comments came after his former India teammate Manoj Tiwary suggested that Mumbai Indians might reinstate Rohit as the captain of the team after the poor start under Hardik Pandya's captaincy.

Disagreeing with Tiwary, Sehwag pointed out Mumbai Indians' tendency of starting their season slowly. He also recalled the season when Mumbai began their season with five losses in a row under Rohit's captaincy.

“This team had lost five successive matches under Rohit Sharma's captaincy too; they were 0-5. Then, they were champions (lost in the playoffs). So, they will be patient with Hardik, too. These are stats. They have been 0-3 down, too. But if this extends beyond that too, it might test the team management's patience,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.

"2-3 franchises have done that. Punjab did that, Chennai did that when they gave the captaincy to Jadeja, and then Dhoni took over the captaincy again. But it happened midway through the season. I don't think MI will think about the captaincy switch right now. You can't change a captain after three games; that doesn't send the right message to the team, too. But after seven games, when the season is right in the middle, they can take a call based on how the performance has been," he added.

Mumbai Indians' next game is against Delhi Capitals on Sunday (April 7).