Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians (MI) sprang a surprise last December by appointing Hardik Pandya as their new captain. The all-rounder would be succeeding Rohit Sharma, who led MI to five IPL titles in his 10-year stint as skipper.
This move came soon after Hardik returned to MI, following a high-profile trade from Gujarat Titans (GT), whom he led in the past two seasons.
While the decision of MI management was questioned by the fans and many experts alike, veteran India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has a different perspective on it.
According to Ashwin, Pandya’s signing shows how hungry Mumbai Indians are for their sixth Indian Premier League title.
MI will open their IPL 2024 campaign against GT at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday (March 24).
“The Hardik Pandya buy shows how hungry they are for number 6. Many people might have opinions about why it is right or wrong, or they might have taken it too easy. I am not going into that. This is a pride project. They play to win. And they’ve gone to that extent to buy a player. And you can say so many things, but when a team pulls off such a buy, you tend to think more,” said Ashwin while speaking on his YouTube channel.
Notably, Hardik Pandya started his IPL career at Mumbai Indians in 2015 and played for them until 2021, winning a total of four titles in seven seasons. Ahead of the 2022 mega-auction, MI let him go as they could retain only a few players.
After his release, the all-rounder was signed by the new Gujarat franchise, whom he led to a title win in 2022 and a runner-up finish last year.
Ashwin highlighted that Hardik has always been a combination player and played the middle overs with intent for GT in the last two IPL seasons.
“Think about it, if MI got Rashid Khan from GT instead of Pandya, It is unthinkable, right? In the EPL or the rest of European football, it happens like this. If this also goes like that, some teams will have the financial strain to match up to those teams, and equality is a question mark. But nevertheless, as MI has done this, it looks pretty clear that they are going for number 6,” said Ashwin.
“He has always been a combination player, giving a few overs and scoring runs when required. In GT, a lot of the team’s success came from his transition as a player who plays the middle overs with intent and leaves the finishing to (Rahul) Tewatia and Rashid Khan,” he further remarked.
