 "Hardik Pandya: My birthplace is Gujarat but my cricketing birth happened in Mumbai")
Hardik Pandya insisted that while Gujarat happens to be his birthplace, it is in Mumbai where he began his cricketing journey.
The India all-rounder made the comments during toss on his debut as Mumbai Indians (MI) captain, against his former franchise Gujarat Titans (GT) at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday.
“Feels good to be back. My birthplace is Gujarat, a lot of success came in Gujarat, very grateful to the crowd and this state. My cricketing birth happened in Mumbai, so really good to be be back. It’s been almost two weeks, we started the camp. Boys are very eager to go out there and perform,” MI skipper Pandya said after winning the toss and opting to field.
LIVE | Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians, IPL 2024 Match 5 in Ahmedabad
Pandya had begun his IPL journey with MI in the 2015 season and would become an integral part of their middle order along with brother Krunal and West Indian legend Kieron Pollard. He would then sign with Gujarat as their skipper ahead of the 2022 mega auction and represent them for two seasons.
It’s worth nothing that Pandya was booed by the Motera crowd after his name was announced during the toss. Pandya was also booed while he was making a save on the field during Gujarat’s innings, with GT fans making their displeasure of his high-profile return to MI known.
It was just Pandya making his captaincy debut. At the age of 24, newly-appointed GT skipper Shubman Gill is the youngest captain in the 17th season of the cash-rich league.
Speaking during the toss, Gill said he was excited to be captaining the Titans at the stadium where he has a lot of fond memories.
“Feels very excited, to be able to captain at a stadium where I have a lot of fond memories. This has been one of our strengths, the last couple of seasons the support that we’ve got from the fans has been tremendous for us. I was here a week prior before this game, played a practice match, had a couple of practice sessions. Everyone is looking good, everyone is looking fit,” Gill said during the toss.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsBoth teams handed out maiden caps in the fifth match of the season. While South African pacer Gerald Coetzee and England’s Luke Wood along with uncapped Indian Naman Dhir made their debuts for MI, GT handed debuts to Umesh Yadav, Spencer Johnson and Azmatullah Omarzai.
Barring veteran pacer Umesh, who has 142 appearances for four different franchises under his belt, all the other debutants are making their maiden appearance in the IPL.
Playing XIs:
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill(c), Wriddhiman Saha(w), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Umesh Yadav, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Spencer Johnson
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Shams Mulani, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Jasprit Bumrah, Luke Wood
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