Hardik Pandya became a butt of jokes on social media following his move from Gujarat Titans (GT) to Mumbai Indians (MI). The Team India superstar will now play for the Mumbai-based franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL), triggering a flurry of reactions on Twitter, now rebranded as X.
Pandya coming back to Mumbai pic.twitter.com/PvVtYQLIF6
— भाई साहब (@Bhai_saheb) November 27, 2023
The reason of pandya coming back to MI
Ambani to pandyapic.twitter.com/1jSN0I5X0o
— भाई साहब (@Bhai_saheb) November 27, 2023
Money 🤑🤑 pic.twitter.com/UOhx1stU7R
— 𝐊𝐈𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓 𝐀𝐂𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐘 (@KirketAcademy) November 27, 2023
Hardik Pandya confirmed the news with a post on the influential messaging app.
“Home. MI Home,” Hardik Pandya wrote on the microblogging platform.
Interestingly, speculation was rife that the Team India all-rounder would replace Rohit Sharma as skipper of five-time champions Mumbai Indians.
Hardik Pandya became GT's captain in their maiden IPL season in 2022, leading the Ahmedabad-based franchise to the title in the elite T20 competition.
During IPL 2023, Hardik Pandya's team topped the points table during the group stage before making it to the final. However, the Gujarat Titans failed to lift their second successive IPL trophy after losing to MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings in the title clash.
Following his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in 2015, Hardik Pandya played for the side for seven consecutive seasons before parting ways to join Gujarat Titans during the 2022 season.
During his seven-year stint with Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya was a crucial link in the Rohit Sharma-led team's title-winning campaigns in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020.
Besides Hardik Pandya's tweet, Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians confirmed the development in separate statements.
“As the first captain of Gujarat Titans, Hardik Pandya has helped the franchise deliver two fantastic seasons that resulted in winning one TATA IPL championship and one appearance in the final. He has now expressed a desire to return to his original team Mumbai Indians. We respect his decision and wish him all the very best in his future endeavors,” Gujarat Titans' Director of Cricket Vikram Solanki said.
“Seeing Hardik back at Mumbai Indians makes me very happy. It is a happy homecoming. He provides great balance to any team he plays. Hardik's first stint with the MI family was hugely successful, and we hope he achieves even more success in his second stint,” MI co-owner Akash Ambani remarked.
“We are thrilled to welcome Hardik back home! It's a heartwarming reunion with our Mumbai Indians family! From being a young scouted talent of Mumbai Indians to now being a team India star, Hardik has come a long way and we're excited for what the future holds for him and Mumbai Indians!” Nita M. Ambani added.
Speaking about Hardik Pandya's contribution to India's failed ICC World Cup campaign, the all-rounder featured in only four matches before sustaining an ankle injury that ruled him out of the quadrennial tournament.
Eventually, favorites India lost the final to Australia by six wickets after remaining undefeated en route to the title clash against the Kangaroos.
After Australian skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to field first, the Indian team got off to a flier, thanks to Rohit Sharma's ultra-aggressive approach at the top of the order.
Rohit Sharma smoked sixes and boundaries at will against Australia, taking the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc apart during his short but impressive knock of 47 off 31 balls.
At 1/76 and Rohit Sharma firing on all cylinders, the crowd inside the Narendra Modi Stadium was excited as India looked in complete command of the proceedings on the field.
As the Indians were running away with the match on the back of Rohit Sharma's explosive batting, a moment of brilliance turned the tide in Australia's favor.
The head-turning moment came in the 10th over, bowled by Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell. After Rohit Sharma took him on, smashing a six and a four off Glenn Maxwell, the India captain tried to hit another maximum.
But on this occasion, Rohit Sharma could only get an outside edge of the bat on the ball before Travis Head grabbed a brilliant catch, getting rid of Rohit Sharma for 47.
Once Rohit Sharma perished, Australian bowlers tightened the screws on a dry Ahmedabad pitch, choking the flow of runs for the Indians.
Except for Virat Kohli, who made 54 off 63 balls, no other Indian batter got going with boundaries becoming a rare commodity.
KL Rahul did try to stem the tide in India's favor but continued to struggle throughout his knock of 66 off 107 balls, perhaps contributing to the home team's eventual score of 240 in their allocated 50 overs.
Chasing a paltry 240 to claim a record-extending sixth World Cup title, the Australians found themselves in a deep hole at 47/3 with Steve Smith, David Warner, and Mitch Marsh back in the hut.
However, then came the match-winning 192-run partnership between Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, with the former proving extremely dangerous as he took the match away from India's reach with a sensational 137 off 120 balls.
Subsequently, Glenn Maxwell hit the World Cup-winning runs for Australia as the Kangaroos secured another victory in an ICC event, leaving India captain Rohit Sharma in tears and their millions of fans in a sea of sadness.
Pakistan legend Wasim Akram emphasized that Hardik Pandya's absence impacted India's chances of winning the World Cup.
“If I have to pick any particular reason, I suppose the middle order should have played with a ‘do or die' mindset. I can understand what was going through Rahul's mind, that there was no batting to come after Jadeja and that he had to bat deep, and batting deep meant he couldn't take risks of getting out,” Wasim Akram told Star Sports.
“If possibly Hardik was in the team, he (Rahul) probably would take that risk. But, if he had taken a risk and gotten out in this situation, then people would have criticized him for that as well,” Wasim Akram explained.
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckoned that little chinks in the Men in Blue's combination resulted in their downfall in Ahmedabad.
“Well, India had certain limitations that they had covered beautifully throughout the tournament, with Jadeja at number 7 and their batting finishing at number 6. So India felt the pressure of not having depth; you know, those little chinks in India's armor came to the fore. The batting depth wasn't there, and you saw the way KL Rahul played a bulk of the innings with the knowledge that there isn't much batting to come,” Sanjay Manjrekar told the tournament's host broadcasters.
When asked if Hardik Pandya's absence hurt India because his replacement, Suryakumar Yadav, failed to deliver the goods for the Rohit Sharma-led side in the final, Sanjay Manjrekar replied in the affirmative.
Suryakumar Yadav played poorly in the title clash against Australia, making only 18 runs off 28 balls.
“I've been focusing a lot on the difficulty factor, the slow pitch, and how difficult it was for KL Rahul and the others to get a move on because they didn't have any wickets left in the bag. Just imagine this game was a league match between Sri Lanka and India; would India have taken that risk? Maybe yes, that is where perhaps temperament comes in, and maybe if it was a league match, India would have played differently,” he observed.
Since his freak October 19 injury, Hardik Pandya has been recovering at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, with no date yet announced for his return.
In his absence, Suryakumar Yadav has been captaining the Indian cricket team in the five-match T20I series against Australia.
Since his freak October 19 injury, Hardik Pandya has been recovering at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, with no date yet announced for his return.
In his absence, Suryakumar Yadav has been captaining the Indian cricket team in the five-match T20I series against Australia.
After their 44-run victory in the second T20I against Australia in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, Indians lead the series 2-0, having previously won the opening fixture in Visakhapatnam.
Team India's next T20I assignment will be in South Africa next month when the Men in Blue will meet the Proteas in a three-match series in the southern hemisphere.
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