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When a journalist asked Hardik Pandya about the “captaincy clause” in his contract with Mumbai Indians, the Indian all-rounder ignored the question altogether during the press conference ahead of IPL 2024. Notably, the 30-year-old, who made his triumphant return to Mumbai Indians after two seasons, replaced the five-time IPL winning captain Rohit Sharma in the leadership role shortly after.
Prior to the IPL 2022 mega auction, Mumbai Indians had released Hardik Pandya, after he had won four trophies with them during his first tenure. In the last two seasons of the IPL, he captained the newly created Gujarat Titans to back-to-back finals in the tournament, winning the trophy in the 2022 season.
During the MI press conference in the build-up to the IPL 2024, a journalist had a couple of questions for Hardik Pandya, and said, “We were hearing rumours that there was a captaincy clause in your contract before asking him about the challenges of playing IPL in two phases.” In response, the Mumbai Indians captain wondered whether the IPL is really going to happen in two phases, speaking about how the schedule isn’t out yet, but at the same time, he ignored the “captaincy clause” question altogether.
The displeasure from some sections of the Mumbai Indians fans on social media has been well documented in regard to Hardik Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as the captain of the franchise from the IPL 2024 season onwards. Although Rohit Sharma is one of the greatest captains in the history of the IPL, he is also getting by the years, which is why the MI team management had to secure the future of the franchise with the appointment of Hardik Pandya in the leadership role.
Here is Hardik Pandya ignoring a question from a journalist during MI press conference:
