Big setback to Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025, BCCI banned Hardik Pandya for this reason

The Indian Premier League 2025 is likely to start from March 14. Before that, Mumbai Indians have suffered a major setback. Hardik Pandya will not be able to play the first match for Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians had retained him for 16.35 crores before the IPL mega auction and at the same time also made him the captain for the next season. However, now he is out of the first match as BCCI has banned Pandya for one match.

Mumbai Indians, who did below par in the Indian Premier League 2024, will enter the field hoping for a better performance this time. Ahead of that, there's a major setback in the team as captain Hardik Pandya has been ruled out of the first match. Actually, this ban was imposed on the Mumbai captain in the 17th season of the Indian Premier League due to a slow over-rate in 3 matches. In the last season, it happened 3 times that Mumbai could not complete its overs within the stipulated time under Hardik's captaincy. Mumbai did this in the last match of season 17, so the ban is for the first match of the next season.

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 its overs in the stipulated time and due to this Hardik will have to face a ban of one match.

Under the captaincy of Hardik, Mumbai Indians played their last match against Lucknow Super Giants last season. As a result of this league match, the team failed to complete 20 overs on time. Actually, Hardik Pandya was the captain of Mumbai Indians due to which BCCI imposed a one-match ban on Hardik in IPL 2025. 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 still have to be banned for the next match or so, even by the newly joined team.

It will be interesting to see who will eventually lead Mumbai Indians in the first game since Hardik Pandya is not fit. It is believed that Suryakumar, who has been leading India in T20, can be seen leading in the first game of the league. Mumbai had retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, and Tilak Verma apart from Hardik before the mega auction. At the same time, Mumbai has added many strong players to its team in the auction.