“We have three captains or we have four captains” - Suryakumar Yadav’s huge statement on MI captaincy ahead of IPL 2025

Team India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav has dismissed claims that the Mumbai Indians (MI) are facing leadership issues in the upcoming IPL 2025. While Hardik Pandya is set to continue as the franchise skipper despite a dismal 2024 campaign, the side boasts several other Indian captains, like Rohit Sharma, Surya, and Jasprit Bumrah.

Hardik suffered massive criticism after replacing Rohit at the helm last year, resulting in him having a poor season with bat and ball. MI also struggled as a team under him, finishing at the bottom of the table.

Yet, the franchise retained its core of Hardik, Rohit, Bumrah and Surya, along with Tilak Varma, for the upcoming season.

Talking about the possible conflict of interest among the captains in the MI squad, Surya told the media at an event (via Sportstar):

"As soon as we go to our house, it’s like a family, so we don’t think about that, that we have three captains or we have four captains. We think that we are one team. It’s as good as an institution where we have learned a lot, grown over there, and gone on to play for India. We work as a unit when we get into that dressing room."

He added:

"Yes, there are a lot of captains in the team, but (when) we sit together, (be it) five people, seven, (or) ten, we take a call... how do we want to take the ship forward?"

The core aside, MI added several fresh faces to their squad in the IPL 2025 auction. Some of the prominent names include Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Will Jacks, and Deepak Chahar, among others.

MI open their 2025 IPL campaign against arch-rivals CSK

MI will open their 2025 IPL season against arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Chennai on March 23. The two teams have combined to win 10 of the 17 IPL titles, with each emerging victorious a record five times.

After an incredible run through the 2010s, MI have struggled for consistency over the last four seasons. They missed out on playoff qualification in 2021 and 2022, including a bottom-placed finish in the latter.

MI enjoyed a turnaround of sorts in 2023, making it to the second qualifier before losing to the Gujarat Titans (GT). They suffered a second bottom-placed finish in three seasons in IPL 2024 under the new captain, Hardik Pandya.

Meanwhile, the tale has been quite the opposite for CSK, with the side winning the title in 2021 and 2023. However, similar to MI, CSK endured a poor run last season, missing out on playoff qualification after a heartbreaking loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their final league stage outing.