{"id":157313,"date":"2026-04-20T21:02:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=157313"},"modified":"2026-04-20T21:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:32:35","slug":"maybe-mumbai-indians-should-have-gotten-ashish-nehra-along-with-hardik-pandya-sanjay-manjrekar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=157313","title":{"rendered":"Maybe Mumbai Indians should have gotten Ashish Nehra along with Hardik Pandya: Sanjay Manjrekar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content-body-70883953\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">No player transfer in the Indian Premier League has generated as much drama as Hardik Pandya\u2019s move from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians.<\/p>\n<p>The Indian all-rounder switched allegiance in 2024 in an all-cash trade and immediately assumed the Mumbai Indians captaincy.<\/p>\n<p>Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes the move may have been driven by factors beyond pure cricketing logic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHardik Pandya [to MI] was a very interesting decision. I think sometimes the franchises make decisions that will be newsworthy and get the franchise in the spotlight because ultimately it\u2019s a commercial brand. You can see the kind of valuations franchises are getting. So it may not even be a sound cricketing call,\u201d said Manjrekar on Sportstar\u2019s        <i>Insight Edge<\/i> podcast.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline_embed article-block-item\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/58JRdBRAbIk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Pandya had enjoyed tremendous success with Gujarat Titans, leading the side to the IPL title in 2022 and a runner-up finish in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Manjrekar, however, suggested that the Titans\u2019 golden run owed significantly to head coach Ashish Nehra.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHardik Pandya had success with the Gujarat Titans, and that had a lot to do with somebody named Ashish Nehra. So maybe if you wanted Hardik Pandya, you could have also got Ashish Nehra with him,\u201d said Manjrekar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHardik Pandya, I believe, was brilliant because there was somebody next to him constantly with almost every move that he made on the field,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Pandya\u2019s return to Mumbai Indians was also marked by controversy, with sections of fans turning against him after he replaced Rohit Sharma as captain.<\/p>\n<p>Manjrekar suspects the move may have been influenced by a desire to create impact beyond the field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it\u2019s really not so much about Hardik Pandya, but the decision, whether it was a sensible decision or it was just somebody wanting to think out-of-the-box a little bit and doing something a little sensational.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"publish-time\" id=\"end-of-article\">Published on Apr 20, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/ipl\/hardik-pandya-mumbai-indians-captaincy-ashish-nehra-ipl-transfer-controversy\/article70883953.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No player transfer in the Indian Premier League has generated as much drama as Hardik Pandya\u2019s move from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians. The Indian all-rounder switched allegiance in 2024 in an all-cash trade and immediately assumed the Mumbai Indians captaincy. Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes the move may have been driven by factors&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_AHMEDABAD___IPL_2023_2_1_L2B484QG.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-EVj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/157314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}