No space for Rohit Sharma! Hardik Pandya reveals his phone wallpaper featured 3 MI greats

Indian all-rounder and Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has recalled the emotional second when the five-time IPL champions had bought him for a base worth of INR 10 lakhs in 2015 forward of his workforce’s IPL 2025 sport towards the Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 7.

In a heartwarming video, Hardik Pandya has shared his deep admiration for the Mumbai Indians. The star Indian all-rounder has performed a key function in 4 of their 5 title wins. Hardik stated that the Mumbai Indians have all the time been his favourite workforce, and the present captain additionally revealed the gamers who have been in his cell phone’s wallpaper.

Captain Hardik Pandya shares emotional reminiscence of being picked by Mumbai Indians

Earlier than becoming a member of the Mumbai Indians, Hardik even had a wallpaper of legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, and Lasith Malinga on his cellphone. Surprisingly, Hardik did not have Rohit’s photograph as wallpaper regardless of his immense contributions to the MI franchise. Now main the identical franchise, he feels proud to be a part of the groups which have constantly set excessive requirements through the years.

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Hardik Pandya stated in a video posted by Star Sports activities, X: “Getting picked by the Mumbai Indians was much more particular as a result of Mumbai was all the time my favourite workforce. I had a wallpaper on my cellphone of Sachin sir, Harbhajan (Singh), and I feel Malli’s (Lasith Malinga) face was there. So, I’ve all the time been a Mumbai fan, and clearly getting the chance to come back and play for this franchise was much more particular. And clearly my journey began from there.”

𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐤 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐈! 💙@hardikpandya7 shares the emotional second of being picked by @mipaltan and divulges he nonetheless has wallpapers of his MI idols.

Will Hardik ship a match profitable all-round efficiency vs #RCB?#IPLonJioStar 👉… pic.twitter.com/Q4z3SLjwY1

— Star Sports activities (@StarSportsIndia) April 7, 2025

Hardik Pandya backed by Kapil Dev for India’s captaincy

In the meantime, Pandya’s captaincy hasn’t labored properly up to now, with Mumbai Indians profitable simply one in all their 4 matches within the ongoing IPL 2025. Their subsequent huge conflict is towards the Royal Challengers Bengaluru on the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday, April 7.

Just lately, Kapil Dev backed Hardik to turn out to be India’s white-ball captain regardless of Shubman Gill already being Rohit Sharma’s deputy in the mean time. He was earlier denied India’s T20I captaincy, with Suryakumar Yadav taking on the job after Rohit’s retirement from the format.

Learn Additionally: Watch: Zaheer Khan overtly stakes declare for India coach function throughout IPL 2025

Rohit Sharma returns to nets forward of MI’s huge conflict towards RCB

Then again, Rohit Sharma took half in Mumbai Indians’ internet session on Sunday (April 6) to be prepared for his or her huge sport towards Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Monday at Wankhede Stadium. He had missed the final match towards Lucknow Tremendous Giants after hurting his knee earlier than the sport.

Rohit was one of many first gamers to go into the nets. He batted alongside teammate Ryan Rickelton for about half-hour and confronted high quality bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Mitchell Santner, and Karn Sharma.

Whereas Rickelton was batting, Rohit, who scored 13, 8, and 0 in his three video games for MI up to now within the match, watched from behind and even admired a number of of his clear photographs, particularly a strong straight drive on the nets.

MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene stated on Rohit: “Ro [Rohit] seems to be good; he’ll bat immediately as properly. We have been touring yesterday. He’ll have a success immediately, after which we’ll do an evaluation on that.”