Hardik Pandya replaces Rohit Sharma as the new Mumbai Indians captain

Mahela Jayawardene, Global Head of Performance, Mumbai Indians said, "It is part of legacy building and staying true to the MI philosophy of being future-ready. Mumbai Indians have always been blessed with exceptional leadership right from Sachin (Tendulkar) to Harbhajan (Singh) and Ricky (Ponting) to Rohit, who while contributing to the immediate success have always had an eye on strengthening the team for the future. It is in keeping with this philosophy that Hardik Pandya will assume captaincy of Mumbai Indians for the IPL 2024 season."

Pandya is a five-time IPL champion, having won the tournament four times with MI and once with the Titans. He was the deputy to Rohit Sharma in the recently-concluded ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023, before he bowed out of the competition due to an ankle injury that he suffered whilst bowling in the match against Bangladesh in Pune.

Pandya has scored 123 IPL games and has scored 2309 runs at an average of 30.38, thanks to 10 half-centuries. In addition to that, he has picked 53 wickets at an economy rate of 8.80. However, it was his leadership skills that propelled him to T20I captaincy for India in the aftermath of India's loss in the ICC Men's T20I World Cup in Australia last year. Whether this change of guards for MI results in a similar permanent captaincy shift in the shortest format for India remains to be seen.