You have to admire the courage – Eoin Morgan on Mumbai Indians’ call of Hardik Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as captain

Former England skipper Eoin Morgan has hailed Mumbai Indians’ courageous call to appoint Hardik Pandya as the captain for IPL 2024, replacing Rohit Sharma. Pandya made a comeback to Mumbai Indians after leading Gujarat Titans for two seasons in an all-cash trade deal.

After his move, the franchise revealed that Pandya would replace Rohit as the team leader. Rohit led Mumbai Indians to five titles in the IPL, which is the joint-most along with MS Dhoni.

In fact, according to sources it has been revealed Pandya had put in a condition that he wanted to lead MI before he confirmed his trade. Furthermore, Rohit Sharma agreed to play under Pandya’s captaincy.

Pandya led Gujarat Titans to glory in IPL 2022 and led the franchise to the final in IPL 2023. The all-rounder has been leading India in T20Is in the absence of Rohit Sharma since the T20 World Cup 2022.

“If you look at the franchise itself, they have had a very forward-thinking, logic-driven and future-proof driven style of strategy for a long time,” Morgan said while talking to TOI. “A decision like this reinforces that the franchise always comes first.”

“You probably see this as being a tough decision that they’ve made hoping that the long-term benefits will see MI lifting another championships in the coming years. So, in a way, you’ve to admire the courage that it takes to make a decision like that because not every team would take that decision.”

Hardik Pandya has proved himself as a leader in the last two seasons of the IPL but he will have big shoes to fill at Mumbai Indians as Rohit Sharma led with great success.

Mumbai Indians Retained Players

Rohit Sharma (c), Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, N. Tilak Varma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jason Behrendorff, Romario Shepherd (from LSG), Hardik Pandya (from GT).

Mumbai Indians Released Players

Mohd. Arshad Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Hrithik Shokeen, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Tristan Stubbs, Duan Jansen, Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith, Chris Jordan, Sandeep Warrier.