Before the mini-auction for the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and in the transfer window period, Mumbai Indians (MI) management set the cat amongst the pigeons when a surprise move saw Hardik Pandya back in Mumbai Indians.

This article will discuss whether this move is a Master Stroke or a Blunder

Presented By: Raghunath Nair

Introduction

A well-oiled winning combination was disrupted when the mega auction was announced for the 2022 IPL season and players had to be released and put back into the auction pool to accommodate 2 new franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL)

Out of all the strong teams, Mumbai Indians (MI), the most successful franchise in the IPL was the most affected.

Mumbai Indians had to release key players like Hardik Pandya, Trent Bolt, Quinton D’Kock, and Ishan Kishan into the auction pool.

Gujarat Titans, one of the new franchise team managements roped in Hardik Pandya as their new captain, making him unavailable in the auctions that followed. Mumbai managed to get Ishan Kishan back in the auction at a mind-boggling rate which proved that Mumbai Indians would go the distance to bring back their core. Unfortunately, they did not have the required budget to go for the others.

During the Mega Auction, Mumbai Indians erred in their auctions which was surprising and they ended up relinquishing in the bottom for the season.

The following year, Mumbai Indians got their act together and built a robust team around the retained players and roped in Cameroon Green for Rs 17.5 Crores, which boasted the team strength. They also had Jofra Archer from the Mega Auction expected to play the entire 2023 season.

Unfortunately, their star bowler Jasprit Bumrah did not recover before the 2023 season and the team lost its balance again.

While the 2023 Mumbai Indians did manage to have a superior team as compared to the 2022 season. Batting was impressive but Bowling was lacklustre.

The absence of Jasprit Bumrah and an inconsistent and unfit Jofra Archer was clearly weakening the bowling attack. Chris Jordan who replaced Jofra had a poor IPL. Jhye Richardson too got injured during the season.

Mumbai Indians missed the finals berth when they were beaten in the qualifier 2 match. This meant that the 5 times champions had 3 back-to-back seasons not being in the finals. This was a difficult pill to swallow for a proud team like Mumbai Indians.

A team that plays with a lot of pride would have been utterly gutted by the 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons and there needed some serious soul-searching to be done.

Season 2024 – A Plan to win the IPL Trophy …. Again

The transfer of Hardik Pandya to Mumbai Indians in an all-cash deal would probably go as the biggest transfer in IPL history.

Hardik Pandya is back to the franchise where he won 4 titles in the past.

Gujarat Titans had no choice once Hardik showed his desire to go back to his old franchise. Gujarat Titans had only the choice to get the best financial deal along with the transfer money.

Mumbai Indians have played it smart by keeping a healthy financial position after they traded Cameroon Green to Royal Challengers Bangalore for a Rs 17.5 Cr all-cash deal. They also released Jofra Archer.

These financial transactions have made Mumbai Indians not only bring back Hardik but also have enough in their kitty for the upcoming auction for IPL 2024 on December 19.

As per some media sources, the current Captain of Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma would be disappointed along with some senior players including Jasprit Bumrah as they were all unaware of this big transfer.

Hardik Transfer – Master Stroke or Blunder

While this may be a pure business deal and a good one, emotions are doing rounds on Individual players and their positions in the Mumbai Indians Team.

Rohit Sharma:

Is this the end of Rohit Sharma – The MI Captain? Will he relinquish his captaincy to Hardik and bow out of captaincy?

Hardik Pandya would have agreed to come back only if he had been assured the captain’s role either in the coming season or the next.

Will Rohit be comfortable playing under Hardik whenever that happens? Will Rohit be interested in captaining another franchise?

In all this, Rohit will not be a happy man.

Jasprit Bumrah:

Arguably India’s best fast bowl bowler and the world’s leading T20 bowler, Jasprit Bumrah would have had his sights on becoming the next Mumbai Indians captain after Rohit Sharma. This would have been a natural progression as Jasprit did show that he possessed an astute captaincy brain. There is a high chance that Jasprit Bumrah may move out of the MI franchise.

RCB or SRH could be the natural team as both teams are looking for an Indian Captain and a world Class new ball and death bowler.

Jasprit Bumrah currently is a highly undervalued player in the IPL and deserves a better paycheck.

Suryakumar Yadav:

Sky is India’s current T20 Captain in the absence of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. He is the current best T20 batsman in the world and may also have had MI captaincy in mind.

A serious problem around the corner is foreseen for Mumbai Indians due to the Hardik Move.

Only Time will tell if the punt on Hardik Pandya helps or wrecks the ethos of the Mumbai Indian camp.

SuperSports View

Super Sports is a huge Rohit Sharma Fan but our views on the subject will not be biased.

The Indian Premier League is a professional tournament and Mumbai Indians is run by India’s Biggest Corporate. Like in any corporation, a stronger leader will take over the reins from an outgoing seasoned one. There is no space for emotion in the Corporate world. No one is Indispensable.

In the last 2 seasons, Hardik Pandya as a captain has outscored Rohit Sharma as IPL captain. As a player too, Hardik Pandya’s contribution and his place in any T20 team bring balance.

No one talks about Rohit Sharma, the batsman, as his captaincy overshadows his batter’s role in the team. Rohit Sharma, the batsman has not done anything special in the past few IPL seasons and hence will be rated below Hardik Pandya.

There will be a “ruffling of the feathers” within the MI players and it would be natural as Rohit Sharma has been the most successful captain for the franchise.

Hardik Pandya, as a new possible leader and captain, would be under the radar as a captain to see if he has the necessary skills to keep the team intact and create the best possible championship-winning combination for the Mumbai Indians.

The 2024 Trophy is the Goal and Mumbai Indians will not leave any stone unturned in their quest to win their 6^th Title.