Mumbai Indians had a really disappointing outing in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 as they finished at the bottom of the points table with just 8 points under Hardik Pandya's captaincy. Former MI captain Harbhajan Singh addressed this and said the decision to appoint Hardik as captain might have been taken a little early and kind of backfired on the franchise.
Harbhajan Singh on Hardik Pandya
Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh said Hardik Pandya is not to be blamed here as he led Gujarat Titans wonderfully last two years. He said it was the duty of senior players to keep everyone united no matter who is the captain.
"MI has a big team. have played for it. The management is great and runs the team well. But this decision has backfired. Maybe the thinking was to look for the future. It seems that it did not sit well with the team as they did not look united. It was bound to happen. It pains me to see such a big team, an old team of mine face such poor results. Maybe the timing of the decision was not right. It could have been better had this decision been taken a year later. It is not Hardik’s fault, he was captaining really well in GT. The duty of the senior players is to keep players united no matter who is the captain. Captains come and go. They did not play like a team," Harbhajan told ANI.
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Hardik Pandya suffers one-match ban
Things were not right for Hardik Pandya in any manner this season. He could not perform well on the individual level and neither could help his team finish well. He was at the receiving end of major backlash from fans and to make things worse, he also suffered a one-match ban for maintaining slow-over rate in MI's final league stage match. He won't be playing the first match next season.
“Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians captain, has been fined after his team maintained a slow over rate during their TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match against Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on May 17. As it was his team’s third offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over rate offences, Pandya was fined INR 30 lakhs and banned from playing the team’s next match. The rest of the members of the Playing XI, including the Impact Player, were each individually fined either INR 12 lakhs or 50 percent of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser,” IPL started in their press release.
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