Mumbai: Star Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya has expressed his happiness on joining the Mumbai Indians (MI) camp ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting on March 22. The “emotions” and “memories” he felt after “seeing old friends and reliving the good old days”. Pandya on Monday joined the Mumbai Indians (MI) camp ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The all-rounder is set to captain Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 2024 season of the cash-rich league, replacing its five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy-winning skipper Rohit Sharma. Taking to Instagram, Hardik shared a video of him meeting some of his MI colleagues, including bowling coach Lasith Malinga, who was Hardik’s teammate during his playing days with MI.
Hardik also expressed excitement over what his future holds with the franchise and made his intentions to “get down to business” very clear and obvious. He also shared some pictures of himself sweating it out at the nets. Hardik’s Instagram post caption read, “Day 1. So many emotions, so many memories. Seeing old friends and reliving the good old days. Excited to move forward with this amazing team. Come Mumbai Indians Start working with.” In November last year, Pandya moved back to his former franchise from Gujarat Titans (GT) as part of the trade between the two franchises. The star all-rounder spent two crucial years with GT and led his campaign with confidence in this cash-rich league. In GT’s first season in 2022, Hardik gave them a great start, and the team won the coveted trophy.
In 31 matches for GT, Pandya scored 833 runs at an average of 37.86 and a strike rate of over 133, with six half-centuries and a best score of 87*. He also took 11 wickets for the team with his best performance of 3 wickets for 17 runs. Pandya also played 92 matches for MI from 2015-2021, scoring 1,476 runs at an average of 27.33 and a strike rate of over 153, with four half-centuries and a best score of 91. He also took 42 wickets for the team. Best bowling figures 3/20. Pandya has won five IPL trophies, four of them with MI (2015, 2017, 2019, 2020) and GT (2022).
The 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will begin on March 22, with defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) set to clash with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a South Indian derby at their home ground – MA Chidambaram Stadium. , Last year’s runners-up Gujarat Titans and five-time champions Mumbai Indians will face each other in Ahmedabad on March 24. The fixture has gained a lot of hype due to star all-rounder Pandya moving to his former franchise MI after two brilliant seasons with GT. Shubman Gill has taken over the captaincy of GT. Mumbai Indians (MI) IPL 2024 Squad: Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Verma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Karthikeya, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal. , Jason Behrendorff, Hardik Pandya (traded from GT), Romario Shepherd (traded from LSG), Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madushanka, Shreyas Gopal, Nuwan Thushara, Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma. (ANI)
