Sunil Gavaskar explained why Hardik Pandya was named the captain of MI.

Rohit Sharma, who captained the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians in 10 IPL seasons, has now been replaced by Hardik Pandya, who was brought back to the franchise in a deal with the Gujarat Titans, whom he captained for two IPL seasons. The decision to hand over the captaincy to Hardik didn’t go well with the Mumbai Indians fans, and they lashed out at the MI management for the step taken, but according to India’s former captain Sunil Gavaskar, there are some reasons behind the decision to change the captain of the IPL team and justifying that he said:

We shouldn’t go into rights and wrongs. But, the decision they have taken is for the benefit of the team. In the last two years, Rohit’s contribution, even with the bat, has dipped a little bit. Earlier, he used to score big, but in the last two years, they finished No. 9 or No. 10 the year before last year and in the last year they qualified for the playoffs,”
Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports

Rohit Sharma-led Indian team only lost once in the entire World Cup 2023 tournament, but that loss came in the finals against Australia, and India lost another opportunity to claim the World Cup trophy. Now, after the World Cup, Rohit Sharma hasn’t been active in the cricket field as the BCCI has decided to give him a breather and handed the responsibility to lead the Indian team in limited overs cricket to Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul.

Sunil Gavaskar backs the decision of the Mumbai Indians to declare Hardik Pandya as the new captain, as the right-handed batter is young and confident and the Mumbai Indians require fresh thinking.

I feel that the decision, they have kept in mind that Hardik is a young captain who has produced results. Hardik has led Gujarat to the finals twice, and he led them to the title in 2022. I think they have made him captain by considering all this.
Gavaskar added