Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya
| Photo Credit: PTI

Hardik Pandya will continue to lead Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League’s 2025 edition, despite the team having a disastrous 2024 season under his leadership.

“I have received a lot of love back, (it) means the world to me. My journey started here and you know everything that I have achieved in my life has been part of Mumbai Indians,” Hardik said after his reappointment.

Referring to Mumbai Indians’ five retained players, including himself, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma, Hardik stated, “We are five fingers but one fist, that’s how I look at it.”

It will be interesting to see whether Captain Hardik is able to convert the five fingers into a fist in reality. In IPL 2024, since his controversial return to Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans, the team appeared a disgruntled unit on and off the field, finishing at the bottom of the table.

Come 2025, it will be interesting to see how Rohit – India’s Test and ODI captain, Suryakumar – India’s T20I captain and Bumrah – India’s Test vice-captain at the moment – react to Hardik, the leader.

MI owner Akash Ambani was confident about his team’s abilities. “We have always believed that the strength of a family lies in its core and this belief has been reinforced during the course of recent events,” Ambani said.

“…This unified effort reinstates MI’s commitment to building strong trust and ownership amongst our core group, our fans and other stakeholders. We will strive to continue playing the passionate brand of cricket everyone expects from us.”.