The expression on Hardik Pandya’s face was one of resignation. Not in the 2024 Indian Premier League. This season, the Mumbai Indians have already lost two games without much of a fight, which is not unusual given the past several months. It hasn’t been ideal for Hardik to rejoin the MI and lead them as captain after five IPL championships, taking Rohit Sharma’s place. Following an incredible beginning to his captaincy career—winning the championship with the Gujarat Titans in 2022 and guiding them to the championship game the following year—Hardik made his way back to MI, the team that discovered him over ten years prior. However, the move was viewed with suspicion from the beginning.
MI revealed that Hardik Pandya will be their new captain right when rumors that GT was upset that he had severed connections against their repeated demands were circulating. There was a strong backlash. Throughout the first half of the season, Hardik was booed and hacked wherever MI played, and the online bullying spilled over onto the field. Even the Wankhede fans did not spare the India all-rounder.
Hardik’s batting drought, which concluded the season with 218 runs in 14 games at an average of 18 and a strike rate of 145, made matters worse. And he was not as good with the ball either. He took 11 wickets at a 10.75 economy rate. His ability to lead was questioned. His on-field choices drew more criticism than ever before. MI became sucked into a downward cycle from which they were never able to escape.
After losing their final game of the season to LSG by 18 runs, Hardik remarked, “Quite difficult (to summarise), this season we didn’t play good quality cricket and it cost us the whole season.”
a dreadful result after only four victories in 14 games. How is he going to recover from this shock? It’s a world of professionals. There will occasionally be good days and bad days. We must always present ourselves in the best possible light. We didn’t play smart or quality cricket as a team, and the results proved it,” he remarked.
LSG amassed a respectable 214 for 6, helped along by a 109-run partnership between captain KL Rahul (55 off 41 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (75 off 29 balls).
After that, the visitors consistently struck to end MI at 196 for 6, despite Rohit Sharma scoring 68 off 38 deliveries and Naman Dhir scoring 62 off 28 balls.
Given how little has gone well for them thus far this season, Hardik stated it was premature to identify the specifics of what went wrong versus LSG. It’s too early to pinpoint the precise cause of tonight’s failure. The entire season took a turn for the worst. We can go on to the next season and forget about this game.”
