Bad news for Mumbai Indians fans, BCCI bans Hardik Pandya from IPL match; Let’s know the reason

The Indian Premier League 2025 is likely to start on March 14. Before that, Mumbai Indians suffered a major setback. Hardik Pandya will not be able to play the first match for Mumbai Indians. Let us tell you that Mumbai Indians retained him for 16.35 crores before the IPL mega auction and made him the captain for the next season. However, now he is out of the first match. Pandya has been banned for one match by BCCI.

This is the reason for the ban

Mumbai Indians, who performed poorly in the Indian Premier League 2024, will take the field to perform better this season. Before that, the team suffered a major setback and captain Hardik Pandya has been ruled out of the first match itself. Actually, in the 17th season of the Indian Premier League, this ban was imposed on the captain of Mumbai due to a slow over-rate in 3 matches. Last season, this happened 3 times, when Mumbai could not complete their overs within the stipulated time under the captaincy of Hardik. Mumbai did this in the last match of season 17, so the ban is for the first match of the next season.

Penalty for the slow over-rate

According to the Indian Premier League rules, after being found guilty of slow over-rate for the first time, a fine of 12 lakhs is imposed on the captain and a fine of 20-25 percent of the match fee is imposed on the remaining players. If found guilty of slow over rate for the third time in the same season, the captain is fined 30 lakhs and banned for one match. In the last league match played against Lucknow, Mumbai could not complete their overs in the stipulated time and due to this, Hardik will have to face a ban of one match.

Last season, under the captaincy of Hardik, Mumbai Indians played their last match against Lucknow Super Giants. In this league match, the team failed to complete 20 overs on time. Due to this match, BCCI imposed a one-match ban on Hardik in IPL 2025 Hardik Pandya was the captain of Mumbai Indians. The team played its last match against LSG at its home ground Wankhede Stadium. According to the rules of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Hardik Pandya will have to face a one-match ban, even if he joins a new team. Last season, Mumbai's team was at the bottom of the points table. Due to this, Mumbai could not reach the playoffs and the ban imposed on Hardik will continue till their first match of IPL 2025.

Who will be the captain of Mumbai Indians?

It will be interesting to see who will lead Mumbai Indians in the first match in the absence of Hardik Pandya. It is believed that Suryakumar, who is captaining India in T20, may be seen captaining the first game of the league. Before the mega auction, Mumbai retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma apart from Hardik. At the same time, Mumbai has added many strong players to its team in the auction.