Eight years ago, Hardik Pandya walked into an illustrious Mumbai Indians dressing room with his heartbeat racing and mind freezing. He returns to the same place, where there are still illustrious names, but as the team’s all-powerful captain. Between the summer of 2015 and the winter of 2023, Pandya emerged as one of the most skilled all-rounders in the world, bestowed with a personality that burnishes his gifts. An occasionally controversial figure but always an colourful personality, he returns not as the prodigal son but as a proven one, after two successful years with Gujarat Titans.
There would not have been a more fitting candidate to succeed Rohit Sharma, in terms of stature, aura and the inside knowledge of how the club functions. Hardik need not get familiarized with the dressing room, or the dressing room with him. He was that immovable piece of furniture you had lend to the neighbour for a wedding. Or Hardik returning from a lengthy injury layoff rather than spending time polishing his leadership craft with another franchise.
Even the Titans group he forged in the image of Mumbai Indians, stoked in the Rohit brand of captaincy. In his persistence with youth, in his faith in the players he has picked, in his hands-on approach, there were shades of Rohit, like virtuosos from the same gharana. Not that Hardik is a Rohit-clone, but there are lines that overlap. They are antithetical too—Pandya is a firebrand; Rohit the cool-head. But you see the influences, and Rohit’s presence could be the ice to Hardik’s fire.
The shift, presumably, would be frictionless. Neither he nor Rohit would feel vibes of discomfort. The burden of Rohit’s success, the joint-most IPL-title winning captain with MS Dhoni, would not crush Hardik. Responsibilities seldom daunt him, rather they harness the best out of him. Fatherhood and captaincy (along with the backlash from Coffee With Karan faux pas) had gone a long way in making him more mature and wise. Similarly, Rohit is too professional and accommodating a cricketer to nurse hurt, to scheme a rebellion in anger or to be torn by petty ego. Or let those emotions manifest outwardly. It’s the game’s truism—that no one is a captain forever. The IPL team he inherited had luminaries such as Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Kieron Pollard.
For an outsider, the change of captaincy might embody the cut-throatism of franchise cricket at a club that harbours cold sentiments in its pursuit for success, a club that splashes millions as readily as they axe the underperforming millionaires Not winning the trophy in three years might have catalysed this step, but it could have been driven by sheer long-term planning and the need to reboot. At times, in the last few seasons, they have seemed like a team in need of a fresh coat of paint. Or it could be that there would not have been a better window to acquire his signature. He could turn out to be what MS Dhoni and Rohit were to their franchisees — an Indian captain.
When CSK picked Dhoni, he was India’s captain in just the blossoming T20 format. Soon he would take over other formats and become one of India’s greatest leaders. Rohit became the captain on the weight and merit of IPL success. There is no guarantee that Hardik would join the pantheon or for that matter he could be as successful as Rohit or Dhoni, but he is worth investing in, and seems a calculated step forward rather than a blind gamble.
The move could be a win-win for both Rohit and Hardik. Rohit is 36, closer to the end of his career. He is the country’s all-format captain, the rigours would take its toll. The year-long grind would take its toll, mental and physical, on him. Taking away IPL captaincy could unburden him and perhaps unlock the destructiveness of his batting. Last two editions, he has hoarded only 600 runs in 30 innings, at an average of 20 that is beneath his overall standard of 29, and a strike rate of 125 (career strike rate is 130).
Hardik is just 30, an age when maturity and peak form are content bedfellows, when he is both young and experienced. He is damningly injury-prone. However, he has not missed significant chunks of the league due to injuries (unlike the international games). The team is a curious blend of T20 legends and youngsters cutting their teeth in, one that has the 36-year-old Kieron Pollard with 637 games on his profile page and a 22-year-old Nehal Wadhera with an experience of 14 games. Most of Rohit’s lieutenants in the five titles are treading the sunset of their career. To relate to a younger generation, the likes of Tilak Varma, Dewald Brevis and Hrithik Shooken, a younger captain could be more beneficial.
But the relevance of Rohit would not diminish. He would be the first person Hardik would consult for planning and strategies, the first face he would search on the field. His words would command both value and respect. Hardik would do well to tap from his wisdom and knowledge.. According to the reports published in indianexpress.com .
It’s an unavoidable circle of change in sport. A few years ago, Dhoni was leading Kohli and Rohit. Kohli would then lead Dhoni and Rohit. Now. Rohit is captaining Kohli—and both almost led India to its greatest ever World Cup triumph. A lot of Dhonisms and Kohlisms still remain in the team, just as the ideals of Rohit would shine brightly in Hardik’s team too. That would be Hardik’s biggest challenge too—to preserve the legacy of Rohit and make his own legacy too.
