Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India all-rounder and Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya on Tuesday joined the franchise squad ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Pandya was part of India’s title-winning campaign in the Champions Trophy in Dubai. Rohit Sharma-led side defeated New Zealand in the final by four wickets to claim their third title in the eight-team tournament.
Mumbai Indians shared a picture of their captain on X and captioned the post, “The GUN has arrived”.
Pandya played a crucial role in India’s journey in the tournament with his all-round skills. The 31-year-old proved to be a pivotal asset in India’s strategy of going with four spinners while he also produced some match-winning knocks with his bat while coming at No.7.
The IPL 2024 season was his first as Mumbai Indians captain but it didn’t pan out well for him as the franchise finished at the bottom of the standings with four wins in 14 matches. The all-rounder will hope for a better result in the upcoming season.
However, Pandya is set to miss MI’s opening match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 23 due to his one-match suspension at the fag end of the last edition. The penalty followed three over-rate violations during IPL 2024. According to IPL rules, a captain faces a one-match suspension after a team commits three such infractions in a season.
Earlier, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene and the coaching staff of Paras Mhambrey and Lasith Malinga (bowling coaches), J. Arun Kumar (assistant batting coach), and Carl Hopkinson (fielding coach) took to the field, setting up an intensive training session for the boys who have started their camp. Joining the session were Naman Dhir, Bevon Jacobs, Robin Minz, KL Srijith, Raj Angad Bawa, PSN Raju, Ashwani Kumar and Vignesh Puthur.
“A new season to start things fresh. New faces in the coaching team who bring decades of high performance experience that gives players so much information and knowledge to feed off of. Pre-season is always exciting but it’s the intensity that is paramount and that’s what we want to establish today and take it forward. Always going to be a tough season, but I want to ensure that we prepare well when we have the time,” Jayawardene said,
