Tom Moody, L Balaji open up on Mumbai Indians’ captaincy conundrum

Hardik and Rohit (Source -PTI)

Hardik Pandya had to taste a loss in the very first match after he held the reigns of Mumbai Indians. Ironically, he was playing against the side he had left just ahead of IPL 2024. Tempers flared between the fans of Pandya and Rohit Sharma as the captaincy transition was not as smooth as expected. However, with MI’s loss against Gujarat Titans in their first game, fans were not in the mood to spare the all-rounder. 

As the captaincy calculations and scrutiny are at par, Lakshmipathy Balaji has weighed in his opinion on how Hardik can conduct himself to win the dressing room. Notably, Suryakumar Yadav had posted a broken heart emoticon on his social media account as Rohit was replaced by Pandya as the captain. Balaji stressed that the all-rounder has to earn the trust and it will take time. Tom Moody showed surprise when asked about a further potential change in MI captaincy and termed it as long-term decision

“It’s been going on for a while, definitely it’s not normally something which you see, a lot of friendships happen, players have gone to different franchises, yes this is one of the cases, but being in a professional field you have to accept that one side is emotional and one side is something very big, when you come to replace a personality like Rohit Sharma who is already a phenomenal achiever when it comes to Mumbai Indians,” Balaji said while speaking to Star Sports Press Room.

“Definitely it will take some time, it will settle. And you have to win your own men, so for Hardik to win the whole dressing room is very important as a player and as a human so definitely that trust needs to be earned and it will take some time to adapt and accept and I’m sure he’s good enough and professional enough and he’ll accept that and he’s got a young team around him and when they start winning the emotions will be different. If they start losing, then you have problems to face. So slowly things will pop up. It’s better to have a friend in a winning front rather than a losing front,” he added.

I think it’s a long-term decision: Moody

Moody further added that the developments might seem controversial in the first go, but the management views it as the long term vision for the franchise. He also stressed on Pandya building relationships with the key figures in the dressing room and  that could be the key factor in his success at the MI camp.

“I’ll be very surprised if that’s the case. It’ll be very short-sighted if suddenly five games in or eight games in it’ll change. It’s that long term vision. So I think for Hardik Pandya, elevation in that leadership role, as controversial as it was and as a shock it was to lots of people, particularly MI fans, I think it’s a long-term decision. As Bala said, that thing to make sure he wins the dressing room and builds those strong relationships with key people in the dressing room is key to his success moving forward,” Moody added.