"His contribution will never be ignored or unseen" - Rohit Sharma on MI missing out on Hardik Pandya for IPL 2022

Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma has hailed the contribution of all-rounder Hardik Pandya to the success of the franchise over the years. The 34-year-old feels Hardik was a massive reason for MI's success and that his contribution will always be remembered.

MI, like any other team, were allowed to retain a maximum of four players. Although they had a number of match-winners, they had to make the difficult decision of letting Hardik and a few others go back into the auction pool.

Speaking at a pre-season press conference ahead of IPL 2022, Rohit Sharma opened up on Hardik Pandya's role while he was at MI. Responding to Sportskeeda's query, here's what the 34-year-old said:

"Yes, I mean, look, Hardik was a key member for us without a doubt. But again it is the rules that don't allow us to keep all the players. His contribution to this franchise will never be ignored or unseen. I think he played a huge role for us to get that success whatever we had while he was here."

The 28-year-old was picked by the Gujarat Titans in the draft and has been named as their captain. On this, Rohit Sharma said:

"It is a different challenge for him now that he is the captain of a different franchise. So it is going to be a different challenge for him. But whatever role he had here, he played that to perfection. Not many people can play that role."

"We have some match-winners which I am not going to reveal" - Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma also spoke about the contributions of other former MI players and thanked them for the impact they had in the franchise's success.

The 34-year-old is hopeful that the rules regarding the number of players to be retained might change so that they can keep hold of all their match-winners. On this, he stated:

"Obviously, there are other guys as well who put an impact in this franchise's success. So those performances will never be ignored. We do appreciate all the efforts and hard work that those guys have put in. But there are certain rules and regulations that we need to keep a check on and it doesn't allow us as many players as we want. So hopefully that can change and let's see what happens in that aspect."

Rohit Sharma also hinted that there are a few match-winners in the current squad and they are the ones to watch out for this season. He said:

"We really had some match-winners in the last squad that we had but in this cycle too, we have some match-winners which I am not going to reveal. Hopefully you can see them during the tournament and see what they are capable of."

MI will begin their IPL 2022 campaign against the Delhi Capitals in the second game of the season on March 27.