World Cup-winning England national cricket team captain Eoin Morgan has praised the Mumbai Indians (MI) franchise for taking a difficult and brave decision to replace Rohit Sharma as captain with the star all-rounder Hardik Pandya ahead of the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Hardik Pandya has been entrusted with the responsibility of captaincy of one of the most successful franchises in the history of T20 cricket leagues, the Mumbai Indians (MI), and will have the enormous responsibility of carrying on the team’s legacy on his shoulders. .
Mumbai Indians (MI) became the first Indian Premier League (IPL) team to win 5 championships and all of them were under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. Rohit Sharma’s record of most IPL titles as captain was equaled by MS Dhoni in 2023 when he led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to their fifth title by beating Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans (GT).
Star all-rounder Pandya is considered to be the next captain of the Indian national cricket team in white-ball cricket, but whether he gets the job or not will largely depend on his fitness as he is a very prone cricketer. get injured.
Hardik Pandya’s emergence as skipper came in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when he led the Gujarat Titans (GT) to the IPL title in 2022, which was his first season as skipper and GT’s first season in the competition. . Also in this year’s competition his team performed well and reached the final.
Despite all this success, Hardik Pandya decided to return to Mumbai Indians (MI), with whom he started his IPL journey and was transferred in an all-cash deal.
Pandya’s appointment as Mumbai Indians (MI) captain did not go down well with fans, but former England national cricket team captain Eoin Morgan thinks differently. He believes any franchise would like to have a player of Pandya’s caliber and praised Mumbai Indians (MI) for being forward-thinking and logic-driven.
“Having the opportunity to bring Pandya back into the team is something any team would jump at. But also, if you look at the franchise itself, they have had a very progressive, logic-driven and future-proof style of strategy for a long time,” JioCinema IPL expert Morgan told TOI in an interaction. on Monday.
A decision like this reinforces that franchise always comes first: Eoin Morgan on Hardik Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as captain
Morgan further said that one needs to admire the courage shown by Mumbai Indians (MI) in taking the decision on Rohit Sharma.
“A decision like this reinforces that the franchise always comes first. They don’t see any short-term planning in anything they do. They always try to invest everything they can in the players. They probably see this as a difficult decision they made in the hope that the long-term benefits will see MI lift other championships in the coming years,” he added.
“So, in a way, you have to admire the courage it takes to make a decision like that, because not every team would make that decision,” he added.
Eoin Morgan also shared his opinion on the Impact Player rule that was introduced in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. He said that the introduction of the rule has improved the performance of the teams.
“I like the impact player rule. I think it allows you to produce performances from a side that you couldn’t possibly do,” Morgan said.
“So, I mean, I have participated in many selection meetings over the years and to have them all present is an absolute privilege. But when you don’t have them available, it really makes selection difficult because you’re always struggling to balance the team, whether it’s an extra batsman or an extra bow. “The result was having one rule, it creates an even field throughout the entire tournament and allows teams to be smarter tactically when it comes to playing against tougher opponents who might be full of versatile players,” he said.
Coming back to Rohit Sharma, he was named captain of the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013 and led the team to 5 IPL titles: in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. Overall, He led the franchise 163 times in the IPL and T20 Champions League, winning 91 games and losing 68.