Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians (MI) sprang a surprise on Friday (December 15) by naming Hardik Pandya as their new captain. The all-rounder would be succeeding Rohit Sharma, who led MI to five IPL titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.

The announcement came less than a month after Hardik returned to MI, following a high-profile trade from Gujarat Titans (GT), whom he led in the past two seasons.

This unexpected move has created quite a stir in the cricket fraternity. Former India opener Wasim Jaffer was also left surprised by this decision from the MI management.

"I'm surprised that MI has moved from Rohit Sharma so early. It happened so quickly, I'm also a little surprised. When they did the trade, it was probably communicated to Hardik that he was going to become the captain. But whether it was communicated to Rohit, I don't know," Jaffer said while speaking on ESPNCricinfo.

This significant development also led to the talks of Rohit Sharma's future in the shortest format of the game. The right-handed opener hasn’t played a T20I since the Indian team’s T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final exit. It remains to be seen if he returns to lead India in the T20 World Cup next year.

"It will be interesting to see if he (Rohit Sharma) will captain in the T20 World Cup, that is going to be seen. Because, then again he is captain and Hardik will play under him. So, how does that happen?," Jaffer added.

Rohit Sharma took over as MI captain from Ricky Ponting midway through IPL 2013. Overall, he led MI in 163 matches in which they emerged victorious on 91 occasions and lost 68 games while four ended in ties.