Mumbai Indians (MI) became the first team to be officially eliminated from the contention for the playoffs race in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) registered a thumping victory against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Wednesday.
As per reports published in some sections of media, some senior members of the five-time champions MI squad have expressed their concern regarding Hardik Pandya’s style of captaincy which saw the team’s morale falter through IPL 2024.
The reports suggested that senior players lime Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav held a meeting following the development. The players expressed their concerns about the underlying problems. Individual meetings were also held to discuss about the problems.
However, a Mumbai Indian official attributed the team’s struggles in IPL 2024 to the transitional phase that they are in.
“These are regular teething problems for a team that sees leadership change. This happens in sports all the time,” the official said.
Notably, under veteran batsman Rohit’s captaincy, Mumbai had won IPL titles five times. However, the franchise decided to appoint star all-rounder Hardik Pandya as the captain of the team for IPL 2024. Following the development fans were irked and they booed and trolled Hardik both on and off the ground. It had a huge impact on Hardik’s individual performance and captaincy and overall team performance as well.