England skipper Eoin Morgan has praised the Mumbai Indians for making the call to replace Rohit Sharma as the captain of the side and replace him with Hardik Pandya.

Hardik Pandya’s elevation to the captaincy of Mumbai Indians (MI) for the IPL 2024 season marks a significant shift in the team’s leadership dynamics. This decision comes after Rohit Sharma’s long and successful tenure as MI’s captain, during which he led the team to five IPL trophies since 2013.

The decision to appoint Pandya as captain was not without controversy. Some in the cricket fraternity questioned whether MI was right to replace Rohit, given his track record and contributions to the team’s success. However, others, like Sunil Gavaskar, suggested that the appointment of Pandya could bring a fresh approach to the team.

The decision to replace Rohit as skipper was met with a lot of backlash as MI lost close to 400k followers with an hour of the announcement.

However, Morgan supported the call made by MI while talking to TOI. The former England skipper said that the decision reinforces the five-time champions’ mantra that the team always comes first.

Morgan said that many will view the call as a tough decision but said the courage of MI needs to be admired as not all franchises would make that call.

“If you look at the franchise itself, they have had a very forward-thinking, logic-driven and future-proof driven style of strategy for a long time,” Morgan said. “A decision like this reinforces that the franchise always comes first.”

“You probably see this as being a tough decision that they’ve made hoping that the long-term benefits will see MI lifting another championships in the coming years. So, in a way, you’ve to admire the courage that it takes to make a decision like that because not every team would take that decision.”