Rohit Sharma is among the most successful captains in the 16 seasons of the Indian Premier League so far, winning 6 trophies in all his years of captaincy and second only to former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. However, the veteran player was replaced as the MI skipper with Hardik Pandya in December last year and Rohit will now only be available as a batter for the upcoming season of the IPL.
The decision to replace Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya had evoked sharp responses from the Mumbai Indians fan base while key MI players like Suryakumar Yadav signalled their unhappiness with the move via cryptic posts on social media platforms.
However, almost 3 months after the decision was taken, MI coach Mark Boucher explained the reasoning behind changing the captain of one of the most successful teams in IPL. While speaking on the Smash Sports podcast, Boucher said it was purely a ‘cricketing decision’ to make Hardik Pandya as captain while noting there was not no easy way to remove Rohit Sharma from captaincy.
Notably, Boucher’s explanation has also got a response from Rohit’s wife Ritika who has mostly kept her opinions to herself on the matter. Replying to the Instagram video of Boucher’s explanation on removing Rohit Sharma as captain Ritika wrote, “So many things wrong with this”
Mark Boucher’s explanation on removing Rohit as MI captain:
Speaking on the podcast, Boucher said, “One thing I did pick up with Ro (Rohit) is that he is a fantastic guy. I mean he’s been captaining for ages and he’s done really well for Mumbai Indians and for India as well. He walks into a place and there’s just cameras in it and he’s so busy and he hasn’t had probably the best couple of seasons of late with the bat but he’s done well as a captain.”
Adding further, Boucher said, “And I just thought you know when we’re speaking with the whole Mumbai Indians group, we thought that maybe this is the opportunity for him to step in for his last year or so. We believe he’s got some great value to add and just go out there and actually enjoy it without the hype of being a captain. He is still going to captain India so that hype’s gonna be there but when he steps into the IPL maybe just taking that extra bit of pressure off him as a captain and maybe we get the best out of Rohit Sharma.”
“We want to see him playing with a smile on his face, spending a bit of time with his beautiful family. I think there’s no easy way to do it” the former South African player added.
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Published: 06 Feb 2024, 02:00 PM IST