New Delhi: Five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winners Mumbai Indians (MI) shocked the cricketing world by not retaining Hardik Pandya and his brother Krunal Pandya in this year's mega auction. The duo was identified with Mumbai Indians and both were associated with the team from the beginning of their IPL careers. The reason behind the franchise not retaining Hardik was his struggle with his injury and a dismal outing for team India in the T20 World Cup.
IPL 2022 was a redemption season for the star all-rounder. Captain Hardik Pandya made Gujarat Titans IPL winners in their very first season. Gujarat had signed Pandya for a jaw-dropping amount of INR 15 crore and made him the captain. Talking about his individual performance, he scored 487 runs for his team in 15 IPL matches. In bowling too, Pandya took eight wickets and his economy was just 7.27.
Meanwhile, former team India head coach Ravi Shastri revealed that Hardik was shocked after Mumbai Indians did not retain him ahead of the 2022 season.
"It shocked him when he was not retained by Mumbai Indians," said Shastri in the commentery box during the India-England ODI at Lord's on Thursday, TimesNow reported.
"It was tough... MI had Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharna, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, and Hardik Pandya so they had to pick three out of those five. Ishan Kishan was obviously picked in the auction," Shastri further stated.
"He was picked by Gujarat Titans, where he was given the extra responsibility of captaining, which did him a world of good. When given responsibility, he's a completely different cricket as opposed to just batting and fielding," he added.
After winning the IPL 2022 final, Hardik established himself as an important player in white-ball cricket. BCCI named him the captain of the Indian team for the two-match T20 series against Ireland and under his captaincy the team won the two-match T20 series 2-0.