Hardik Pandya To Miss IPL 2024, MI Fans Demand Rohit Sharma As Skipper Again

A bad piece of news is coming in for Mumbai Indians' camp. According to the reports, Hardik Pandya, the new MI captain and key all-rounder, added to the side after a sensational 15-crore trade last month from the Gujarat Giants, will likely miss the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024). Pandya is likely to miss the series against Afghanistan and the entire IPL 2024 due to an ankle injury.

However, there has been no official confirmation about Hardik's fitness and participation from the BCCI or IPL franchise yet. But if this happened, the Akash Ambani-owned franchise may re-announce Rohit Sharma as captain again, said reports. Hardik got his ankle twisted during the World Cup league match against Bangladesh in Pune.

This is going to be Hardik Pandya's second stint with Mumbai Indian. He made his debut with Paltan in 2015 and presented MI for seven seasons of IPL before being released in 2022. Then he joined Gujarat Titans and led the side to two finals, including a maiden IPL title win.
Indian opener led Mumbai Indians for over a decade with five title wins.

Earlier, MI faced backlash from fans for sacking Rohit Sharma from the captain's position and naming Hardik Pandya as the new lead. The team lost over 4 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 2 million on Instagram.

One can call the current soup for MI as fans curse for sacking Sharma. Criticizing MI a social media user said 'Hardik Pandya is almost Ruled out of IPL 2024 !! I repeat Never Ever Mess with Rohit Sharma.🔥 Sharma & Karma always strikes!"

Here's how fans reacted on micro-blogging site X after reports of Hardik's unavailability surfaced: