Navjot Singh Sidhu Explains Mumbai Indians' Captaincy Debacle

Despite an electrifying start to the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) season, the captaincy debacle surrounding the Mumbai Indians (MI) franchise still remains the centre point of attraction. Just before the start of the IPL 2024, the Mumbai Indians took a really bold decision as they bought star all-rounder Hardik Pandya through an all-cash trade deal from the Gujarat Titans (GT) and then also appointed him as their captain in place of senior cricketer Rohit Sharma who is the most successful IPL captain having won as many as five IPL trophies. Incidentally, Pandya was part of the MI team during 2015 to 2021 after which he captained Gujarat Titans in 2022, 2023 and went on to win the title in his debut captaincy reign and even finished as the runners-up last year. 

A God is a God even if they are standing at the bottom of a well terms Navjot Singh Sidhu

Hardik Pandya did not had the best of starts to his captaincy reign with the Mumbai Indians as his team ended up suffering a disappointing 6-run loss at the hands of Gujarat Titans in their first match of the Indian Premier League 2024 season at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. While doing commentary in the tournament, former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu shared his opinion on the captaincy shift in the Mumbai Indians franchise. The senior commentator noted that Mumbai Indians could have opted to bring a change in the leadership role just like it happened in the Chennai Super Kings where MS Dhoni passed on the baton to Ruturaj Gaikwad. 

However, Mumbai Indians instead opted to take a decision based on the recent performances in the cash-rich T20 league. Also, Hardik faced a lot of criticism for his captaincy decisions during the previous match against Gujarat Titans. 

"A dwarf is a dwarf even if he is standing at the top of a mountain and a God is a God even if they are standing at the bottom of a well. Dhoni has passed the baton already and that could have happened in Mumbai Indians as well. But this is a franchise and they look at the performances. They gave it three years and when it did not work, they got a new person for the job. You need to accept it. But Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni are great players," said former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu on commentary. 

"You have to plan and decide what you want to do as a team. Hardik (Pandya) has also bowled with the new ball for Gujarat over the last couple of years. He swung the new ball and bowled it well, which was nothing new to us," stated Mumbai Indians' batting coach Kieron Pollard.