AB de Villiers comments on Hardik Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as Mumbai Indians captain

IPL 2024 Mumbai Indians team: Hardik Pandya replaces Rohit Sharma as captain

Five-time Indian Premiere League (IPL) trophy-winning Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma will make way for Hardik Pandya to lead the team in 2024 season. Hardik Pandya returned to Mumbai Indians last November through a trade with Gujarat Titans (GT).

All-rounder Hardik Pandya spent two seasons 2022 and 2023 with the Gujarat Titans and lead the team to win its debutant tournament in 2022. He has now returned to his original team, Mumbai Indians.

AB de Villiers, legendary cricketer from South Africa, has said that Mumbai Indians seemed to have moved on for this ‘captaincy’ debate and they need to fire as a batting unit if they are eyeing their sixth title win in the IPL 2024.

"Incredibly successful team of the IPL. They have won five titles. Big controversy over the last few months was that Hardik Pandya coming in as new captain in place of Rohit Sharma. They seem to be happy though. They seemed to have moved on. It's great to have Hardik Pandya in blue at his home team Mumbai Indians. They will be starting against Gujarat Titans, how ironic is that," De Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

Mumbai Indians is set to take on IPL 2023 runner-up Gujarat Titans on March 24 in the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.

De Villiers, who played 184 IPL matches scoring over 5000 runs including three centuries and 40 fifties has pinned his hopes on MI as a contender for IPL 2024 title.

He feels MI have a star-studded line up with players like Jasprit Bumrah, who was in sublime form in the Test series against England. De Villiers also said that Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) needs to fire for MI. Everyone loves to watch players in-form and firing in big tournaments.

Mumbai Indians won their five titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.