Hardik Pandya instructing Rohit Sharma to field on boundary rope© X (Twitter)
The change of guard at Mumbai Indians came to the fore as the franchise took on Gujarat Titans in their opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season. Hardik Pandya took over the reins from Rohit Sharma, leading the 5-time champions for the first time against his old franchise. The match resulted in a 6-run defeat for MI as Hardik began his captaincy stint with a loss. During the game, there were multiple moments that shed light on the new leadership structure, particularly involving Hardik and Rohit.
A video surfaced on social media where Hardik could be seen instructing Rohit to go and field on the boundary rope. The call by Hardik left the Hitman with a little surprise, as the latter was seen confirming with the skipper if it was him he was talking to. Here’s the video:
NO HATE TO HARDIK, BUT IT HURTS WATCHING ROHIT LIKE THIS#RohitSharma #HardikPandya pic.twitter.com/9pw8X3IEKG
— Krati Saini (@_kratisaini) March 25, 2024
Rohit, in his new role as a pure batter, was brilliant with the bat, scoring 43 runs off just 29 balls before being dismissed by R Sai Kishore. Hardik, on the other hand, could only score 11 runs from 4 balls before being dismissed by Umesh Yadav.
Hardik, on Sunday, took the six-run defeat to Gujarat Titans in their IPL opener on the chin, saying it was “not an issue” as there are 13 matches to go. Pandya was not harsh on his batter Tilak Varma who refused to run a single at a crucial juncture when batting alongside Tim David.
Set a target of 169, MI ended at 162/9 in 20 overs after they looked on course for victory.
“Obviously we back ourselves to chase those 42 runs (in the last five overs) but it was one of those days where we see the score quite less in those last five overs, we lost a bit of momentum there,” Pandya said at the post-match presentation.
With PTI inputs
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