Mumbai: The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 is the 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and will commence on March 22, in which Mumbai Indians will play in the opening match against Chennai Super Kings on March 23. But their star all-rounder and captain Hardik Pandya will be missing for this high-profile clash due to a one-match ban. The sequence of events that forced him out and who would replace him as team leader are unknown.
Before getting into the matter, let’s find out why Hardik Pandya has been punished. Pandya took over as captain of the Mumbai Indians in the previous season, which created a debate on the fall of performance of MI. He drew a lot of flak for finishing at the bottom of the league in charge of Mumbai. Notably, Pandya was also penalised for slow overrates three times during his captaincy. Under IPL rules, a captain will be fined ₹30 lakh and barred for one match for this breach of rules thrice. The final group stage match was Pandya’s third transgression, but as his side was not involved in the playoffs stage, he could not serve the suspension in the previous season. Therefore, he will miss the first game against Chennai Super Kings.
So, who would captain Mumbai Indians in Pandya’s absence? Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the first half of the IPL and is therefore not in contention for the role. This now leaves Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma as the two main competitors for captaincy. Rohit is a proven winner many times over. Mumbai Won Them All Under newly appointed T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav, India has an outstanding record of 18 wins from 23 matches. Rohit, however, may not step up to take on the captaincy again, which leaves Suryakumar Yadav as the most likely candidate to captain Mumbai against Chennai.
Comments are closed.