IPL 2024: Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma’s hug during Mumbai Indians practice match sparks Meme Fest | Cricket News

Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya and former captain Rohit Sharma embrace during the pre-season training of the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting on Friday Together. The all-rounder will take over the captaincy of Mumbai Indians (MI) from five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy-winning captain Rohit Sharma in the 2024 season. A video of Hardik and Rohit meeting during a training session has created a buzz on social media.

same energy pic.twitter.com/7KdKQ3HN8Y

— Johns (@JohnyBravo183) March 20, 2024

same energy pic.twitter.com/v0xXI5I0pV

— isHaHaHa (@hajarkagalwa) March 20, 2024

Pandya returned to his previous team from Gujarat Titans (GT) in November last year as part of a deal between the two teams. The all-round star spent two important years at GT, leading the side’s campaign in the cash-rich league with aplomb. In GT’s inaugural season in 2022, Hardik gave them a fairytale start as the team lifted the coveted trophy.

same atmosphere pic.twitter.com/VmXHZk96fC

— Utkarshh (@utkarshh_tweet) March 20, 2024

same atmospherepic.twitter.com/7ByaEtSOQu

— Manu (@VoiceOfLibran) March 20, 2024

The heartwarming gesture between the two star players comes as fans of the two star players are at loggerheads on social media, accusing the franchise of betraying the five-time IPL champion skipper despite his actions contribution, but still removed him. At the recent pre-season press conference organized by the team, Pandya did not answer when the media asked about the so-called “captaincy clause” in his MI contract. Even head coach Mark Boucher remained silent when asked about the reasons for sacking Rohit as captain, adding fuel to fan wars and rumors on social media.

At the same time 45&33 internal reactionpic.twitter.com/ust1yBWzJV

– abilove129 (@abilash87576270) March 20, 2024

However, in February, Boucher had said that Rohit was relieved of captaincy to help him gain more freedom as a batsman after a couple of disappointing IPL seasons with the bat.

In 31 games in GT, Pandya scored 833 runs at an average of 37.86 and a strike rate of over 133, including six half-centuries with a best score of 87*. He also took 11 wickets for the team with best figures of 3/17.

Pandya also played 92 games for MI between 2015 and 2021, scoring 1,476 runs at an average of 27.33 and a strike rate of over 153, including four half-centuries with a best score of 91. He also took 42 wickets for the team, including 3/20 as the top bowling figure. Pandya has won 5 IPL trophies, 4 of which are MI (2015, 2017, 2019, 2020) and GT (2022).

The 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will kick off on March 22 with defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at their home stadium, Machidambaram Stadium. South Indian Derby. .

Last year’s runners-up Gujarat Titans and five-time champions Mumbai Indians will play a mouth-watering opener on March 24 in Ahmedabad. The match attracted a lot of attention as star all-rounder Pandya moved to his previous team MI after two outstanding seasons with GT. Shubman Gill takes over as GT captaincy.

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 Kartikeya, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jason Behrendorff, Hardik Pandya (traded from GT), Romario Shepherd (traded from LSG), Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madushanka, Shreyas Gopal, Nuwan Suchhara, Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)