Hardik Pandya retains captaincy for Mumbai Indians amid challenging IPL 2024 season

Despite a challenging Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 campaign that saw the Mumbai Indians (MI) finish at the bottom of the table for only the second time in their 17-season history, Hardik Pandya will remain as captain for the upcoming season. The franchise announced this decision on Thursday, confirming the retention of key players, including Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, and Tilak Varma, ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.

This retention is a significant achievement for MI, as they managed to retain a talented roster at a total cost of INR 75 crore, leaving INR 45 crore available to strengthen their squad at the auction. Bumrah, retained for INR 18 crore, is now MI's highest-paid player, marking a milestone in his IPL career. Both Hardik and Suryakumar were retained at INR 16.35 crore each, while Rohit was kept on board for INR 16.30 crore. Tilak Varma's retention cost was INR 8 crore.

"It's been fantastic. I think I have received a lot of love back," Hardik said in an MI video, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"It means the world to me, as I've always mentioned, my journey started here. Everything I've achieved in my life has been a part of Mumbai Indians. Playing again, every year is a special year, and this year is going to be even more special. We remember as a group 2013, 2015, 2017, '19 and '20. I think all of our fans know what happened in those years, and we are going to come back in 2025 even stronger than that. You win and lose on the ground," he added.

"Five people who have cherished good memories together. We are five fingers but one fist. That's how I look at it. We are going to come all guns blazing. Brotherhood, friendship, and at the same time, we are going to back each other no matter what happens," Pandya noted.

Pandya faced challenges throughout IPL 2024, with fans expressing their discontent by booing him at various venues, including the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. After being traded from the Gujarat Titans and succeeding Rohit as captain, he struggled with his performance, scoring only 216 runs at a strike rate of 143 and taking 11 wickets with an economy rate of 10.75. Following their disappointing tenth-place finish last season, MI has also reinstated Mahela Jayawardene as head coach for IPL 2025, hoping to revitalise the team's performance in the upcoming season. (ANI)