New Zealand National Cricket Team’s veteran opening batsman Martin Guptill has reacted to star all-rounder Hardik Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as the new captain of the Mumbai Indians (MI).

On Friday, December 15, Mumbai Indians (MI) surprised the cricket fraternity by naming Hardik Pandya as the team’s new captain ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

The move was on the cards after the star all-rounder was traded from Gujarat Titans (GT) for INR 15 crore, but many expected him to take over the responsibility of captaincy after a few years when Rohit resigned from the captaincy.

Meanwhile, replacing a captain of Rohit’s caliber will not be an easy task for Hardik despite having shown excellent leadership skills in his first few seasons as captain of the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Rohit was named captain of the Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2013 when they had not won any IPL trophy. He changed the fortunes of the franchise with his extraordinary leadership qualities and guided it to 5 IPL titles. He led the team to victory in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.

Hardik is definitely the one – Martin Guptill

Martin Guptill spoke to TOI on the sidelines of the recently concluded Legends League Cricket (LLC) and spoke about the significant change in the leadership of Mumbai Indians (MI).

The New Zealand veteran said that Rohit Sharma has had a fantastic career, but he was not sure how long the legendary Indian cricketer would continue. He added that Hardik is the right choice to lead the franchise.

“I think the good thing about Hardik is that he has youth on his side. Rohit and I are the same age and Rohit’s career, I’m not sure how long it will last. He has had a fantastic career to date and if you look to the future, Hardik is definitely the one.”

“Hardik was from Mumbai from day one of his career and obviously played for Gujarat for the last few years. But he has a lot of support and stuff in Mumbai. So he definitely could be a leader for them,” the New Zealand opener added.