Hardik Pandya will lead five-time champions Mumbai Indians in the upcoming Indian Premier League season. In December last year, MI traded Hardik from Gujarat Titans in an all-cash deal and made him captain. Rohit, who led MI to five titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020, will remain with the team but will no longer be the captain. Speaking about the surprising change made by Mumbai, South Africa great AB de Villiers said it caused “a lot of controversy”.

“Mumbai Indians are a very successful team in the IPL. They have won (the IPL title) five times. The biggest controversy in the past few months was the replacement of Rohit Sharma by Hardik Pandya. Rohit Sharma becomes the new captain. However, they seem happy. “They seem to have moved on. It’s great that Hardik Pandya is back playing for his hometown team, Mumbai Indians. How ironic that they will start against the Gujarat Titans,” de Villiers said on his show. Youtube channel.

Last year’s runners-up GT and MI will lock horns in a mouth-watering showdown on March 24 in Ahmedabad. The game attracted a lot of attention as star all-rounder Hardik moved to his previous team MI after two great seasons with GT, with whom he won the 2022 World Cup in his first season as captain in 2022. Trophy.

Pandya will lead MI this time while Shubman Gill takes over as GT captaincy.

The 17th season of IPL will kick off on March 22 with defending champions Chennai Super Kings taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore in a South India derby at their home venue, MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Currently, the schedule till April 7 has been announced and the rest of the schedule will be announced later as the Lok Sabha polls are coming up and the exact date is yet to be notified.

(with ANI input)