Mumbai Indians' Team Captain Hardik Pandya Faces One-Match Ban

India’s all-rounder cricketer Hardik Pandya regained his spot as the world No. 1 all-rounder in the ICC T20I rankings on Wednesday. However, there’s some unlucky news for the Mumbai Indians captain ahead of the IPL 2025 season. 

Hardik will not be available for the IPL 2025 opener due to a 1-match suspension, following Mumbai Indians' slow over-rate in their final match of IPL 2024 against Lucknow Super Giants at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Since it was the final game of the season, according to BCCI regulations, Hardik will probably miss the opening match of the next IPL season, even if he has switched teams by then.

This was the 3rd instance in IPL 2024 where MI failed to maintain a minimum over-rate. Consequently, Hardik was slapped with a 1-match ban and fined Rs 30 lakh. The remaining playing team, which included the Impact Player, was also penalized, each receiving a fine of Rs 12 lakh or 50% of their match fee, whichever was lower. Mumbai Indians had a very disappointing campaign under Hardik’s captaincy. Their 18-run defeat to LSG in the final match meant MI ended up with just 4 wins from 14 matches, which finished at the bottom of the IPL 2024 points table.

Hardik, who was brought in as a pre-season trade and took over the captaincy from Rohit Sharma, faced a quite difficult season. He was booed by the Wankhede crowd all the time in the tournament. On the ground, he managed to score 216 runs at an average of 18.00 and a strike rate of 143.04. With the ball, he totally claimed 11 wickets at an economy rate of 10.75.

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