Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma, on Wednesday (23rd March), said that the five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions cannot and will not ignore the contributions of all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
Hardik Pandya was not retained by MI ahead of the IPL 2022 auction and this led to Gujarat Titans (GT) picking Hardik Pandya ahead of the mega event, who also named him their skipper ahead of the season.
The all-rounder was bought by Mumbai Indians in 2015 for a base price of INR 10 lakhs only. Since then he rose in ranks and has turned into a completely different cricketer.
Pandya, from time to time proved his mettle and won many matches on his own for Mumbai Indians and has played a pivotal role in their title victories in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020.
Hardik represented MI in 92 matches and scored 1476 runs with the bat at a staggering strike rate of 153.91 to go with 4 half-centuries. With the ball, he took 42 wickets at an economy of just over 9.
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The all-rounder was not retained by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2022 auction as they went in for Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, and Kieron Pollard from their 2021 squad.
Addressing a virtual press conference, Rohit Sharma lauded Hardik Pandya’s contribution to the Mumbai Indians and wished him luck for his new stint as the skipper of Gujarat Titans.
"Hardik Pandya's contribution can't be ignored by Mumbai Indians. He did the job perfectly for us. He's now the captain of one of the IPL franchises, best wishes to him," Rohit Sharma said.
MI’s skipper also played down the talk of having an added advantage for the five-time champions in the upcoming IPL 2022, as the whole league stage is set to be hosted by Mumbai and Pune.
"I don't believe in added advantage as 70-80 percent (of the Mumbai team) guys have not played in Mumbai before," he said.
Mumbai Indians will kick-start their IPL 2022 campaign against Delhi Capitals. The clash will take place on March 27 at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
(With PTI inputs)
