24 March,2024 07:05 AM IST | Ahmedabad | Sunil K Vaidya
Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya. Pic/MI; (right) Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill. Pic/GT
All eyes were on the Narendra Modi Stadium pitch four months ago when India played Australia in the 2023 World Cup final. On Friday, two days before the first IPL match at this Motera venue, no one bothered to have a look at the uncovered 22-yard strip.
It was all about Hardik Pandya on his home turf in a new avatar and, as the Mumbai Indians's (MI) new captain, his equation with India skipper Rohit Sharma.
Everyone was following Pandya and his interaction with Rohit. Even if there was awkwardness between the two, it was impossible to judge that from 60 yards outside the boundary line.
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Rohit and Ishan Kishan batted alternately for more than an hour as the main MI bowlers tested them under the watchful eyes of Kieron Pollard and Pandya. Jasprit Bumrah troubled Ishan, who must have ended with a few cherry marks on his body at the end of the batting session.
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On the adjacent pitch, the Gujarat Titans were undergoing their drills, which went almost unnoticed.
The Titans are unbeaten at Motera in their two meetings with five-time champions MI.
Newly-appointed Titans captain, Shubman Gill, does not see his first match against the MI as a tough test: "I think it's going to be an exciting start to my captaincy career. Facing MI, five-time IPL champions, in our home ground in Ahmedabad, with 1,20,000 people supporting us, I think it's going to be very exciting."
The soft-spoken Gill was confident that despite Pandya's departure to MI, the home team were strong enough to start on a winning note. "I think we have won 20-21 matches out of 28 league matches that we have played. This is especially true in a league like the IPL. It's not easy to have that kind of success rate," Gill pointed out during a media interaction on Saturday.
"There were just not two players doing well for us. It was the whole team that came together and did well. That's why we have had the seasons that we have had," he stressed.
Tilak Varma was prodded to talk about Pandya as a captain and Rohit's role in the team now. The young batter, playing only his second season for MI, played with a straight bat. "Hardik bhai is a good leader. And as everyone knows, Rohit bhai is a team man. He is always there for Hardik bhai," he said.
