Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya has claimed that he was surprised to be named captain of the side last year. Ahead of the last season, he was appointed the captain of the side that made its debut. Before this, Pandya played for Mumbai Indians from 2015 to 2021 and was part of four titles out of five winning seasons.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview ahead of the IPL 2023 final, the all-rounder said that he was surprised to have led the side. Notably, there were rumors that the India all-rounder wanted to lead the MI side. However, the franchise didn’t want to change their skipper as everything was going well with the team. Meanwhile, the 29-year-old was released ahead of the last year’s mega auction.
As it turned out, the former MI player led his current to victory in their debut season. They beat the inaugural winners, Rajasthan Royals to lift the trophy.
“I was surprised when Ashish Nehra asked me to be the captain of Gujarat Titans”.
Mumbai Indians have always had the best players: Hardik Pandya
Meanwhile, during the league stage of the ongoing 16th season, the Choryasi-born player said that his former IPL team always has the best players. However, that statement created controversy as the fans didn’t agree with him.
“There are two formulas for winning in cricket. One is to get the best players in auction like MI and other is to take any player In auction and give them a good environment and getting the best out of players like csk team,” said Pandya
After this, the likes of Irfan Pathan and Rohit Sharma took a sly dig at Hardik.
“Mi ek esi university hai jaha ki graduation Apko super star Banati hai.”
“Yes, we are a superstar team, but the superstars were developed by the franchise. All these players who we mentioned, they are part of the big auction pool. These players, we bought them. Our scouting team worked hard day and night. They went to Ahmedabad and spotted Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel. Hardik and Krunal, our scouts spotted them in 2015 and they got them here. We have worked hard for that, it’s not like it just happened on its own. MI’s squad was built over a period of 5 years from 2015 to 2020. You talked about De Kock and Boult, these players were available at the auction,” Rohit Sharma said JioCinema.
This is how Twitter reacted
Lmao but the fact is he always wanted to be the captain, wanted captaincy of MI too.
— ANSHUMAN? (@AvengerReturns) May 28, 2023
What did he expect? That ashish should've begged him instead of asking?
— Saklam muklam (@soma_lingam) May 28, 2023
He wanted the Captaincy of MI & now making statement that he was surprised like seriously
— SOURAV DAS (@BeingSouravDas7) May 28, 2023
Chup kar naa bhai kyu phekh raha the very reason you left MI was you wanted to be captain and before joining new franchise he specifically put a condition that he wanted to play as captain ?
— Rohit Jaiswal (@RohitJa98837448) May 28, 2023
After such a disappointing 2021 season he should be ?
— Aayush Agrawal (@crazycricfan45) May 28, 2023
this y context matter always
HE WAS about to play under KL in LUCKNOW since both share great rapo
but one phn call from NEHRA asking HARDIK to captain GT
made him change his decisions and he saying that onlyto much hate for dick
— CA (@champion__GT) May 28, 2023
Still no one knows you in GT, Nehra only manages the team.
— ` (@worrship45) May 28, 2023
abe sharam kar captaincy ke liye hi MI chodda tha
— Sreerag Rajesh (@RajeshSreerag) May 28, 2023
Good joke ??
— Gagan Chawla (@toecrushrzzz) May 28, 2023
We all know why you get kicked from MI.
You want the captaincy job they said NO.
Then you jumped in to Titans.
Don't fool— ????????????? (@Imtheaadu) May 28, 2023
