WATCH: Old video of Hardik Pandya praising CSK surfaces after MI's announcement appointing him captain for IPL 2024

The Mumbai Indians(MI) are still all over the internet with the Upcoming Indian Premier League(IPL) 2024 auction just a couple of days away. One of the major decisions made by the star-studded franchise was appointing Hardik Pandya as the new MI skipper in place of Rohit Sharma.

The news has led to some mixed reactions from fans regarding the decision. Some people still feel that Rohit should have been the skipper for at least one more year and some people feel that this might be a new beginning with Rohit finally taking a backseat after 10 years of leading the side. It will be the first time since 2013 that MI will play an entire season without Rohit at the helm of affairs.

Despite some negative reactions, Hardik did have a great couple of years as captain of Gujarat Titans(GT). The aggressive all-rounder from Baroda had won the title in his first season as captain and was the runner-up in the following season.

To go with that Hardik has got a good captaincy record in IPL so far with a win rate of over 70%. He also has a good record while leading the Indian team in international cricket as well. He also shared in an interview who his inspiration was and which teams he took inspiration from while leading the Gujarat franchise.

Hardik on Chennai Super Kings environment

In an interview during the last IPL season, Hardik shared his views on Both Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings(CSK) and why they are one of the best teams in the tournament. He openly discussed mentioning both teams saying that the CSK franchise had the best environment he has seen stating “There are two kind of success you can get. One is to get the bestest people possible from A to B which I feel MI had, those few years where we’ve won or have the best environment possible for you to win just like CSK  where no matters who the  players are they get the best out of them. That was more inspiring for me to not get the best players but to get the best environment and get this thing". 

Barely six months ago, Hardik Pandya shared why the CSK setup inspires him more than MI.

He will now be captaining Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024. pic.twitter.com/rT7pnueZN9

— Sameer Allana (@HitmanCricket) December 16, 2023

This statement might cause different reactions as well where he preferred the CSK environment more than MI. However, Hardik has only talked about the inspiration he took from the team and didn’t say anything derogatory about the MI franchise. It will be interesting to see if Hardik can create the same environment as CSK while leading MI in the upcoming tournament. All eyes will be on Pandya during IPL 2024 and will be hoping to have the same success he had in the last two years.