Hardik Pandya replaced Rohit Sharma as the Mumbai Indians captain for IPL 2024.

New Delhi: Former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sudhu labeled Hardik Pandya as the ‘future’ of the Indian team and backed the all-rounder as the ‘natural choice’ for the leadership roles going forward. Having captained Gujarat Titans to one IPL title and one runners-up finish, Pandta returned to Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2024, replacing Rohit Sharma as the skipper.

However, the decision by the five-time IPL champions didn’t go well as one would have expected, as the 30-year-old was booed by the fans every time he entered the field. Even his captaincy stint didn’t start well as Mumbai Indians lost their first three games before pocketing first points against Delhi Capitals.
Sindhu, who is a part of the Hindi commentating team at IPL 2024, stated Pandya as the natural choice.

“Hardik Pandya is the future,” Sidhu was quoted as saying by India Today. “Rohit is now around 36-37. He has a couple more years left. He is a superb captain and a wonderful player. But, you have to actually look forward and prepare the ground for someone to take over,” added the former cricketer. Sindhu also emphazised on Pandya’s credentials in white-ball cricket as a vice-captain during Rohit’s absence.

“Hardik is your natural choice. That’s why BCCI has named him the team’s vice-captain,” Sidhu added. Having said that, the BCCI can’t name Pandya as full-time captain across formats as the all-rounder doesn’t feature in Tests. In that case, Sidhu backed pacer Jasprit Bumrah to take up Test captaincy.

“Jasprit Bumrah has been handling expectations wonderfully well,” Sidhu remarked. “He was the natural choice for vice-captain. You can have Jasprit Bumrah as Test match captain,” he added. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians would be looking to get their second win in IPL when they host Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.