Mark Boucher on Why Mumbai Indians Replaced Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as captain

IPL 2024: Hardik Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as MI captain before the IPL Retention created a massive stir. Back then, not much was known as to why Rohit was removed as captain despite his good record for Mumbai Indians.

A couple of months ahead of the IPL season, Mumbai Indians franchise head coach Mark Boucher explains why Mumbai Indians replaced Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as captain for the upcoming IPL season.

It was purely a cricketing decision. We saw the window to bring Hardik back as a player. It’s a transition phase. A lot of people don’t understand in India, people get quite emotional but you know you take the emotions away from it.

“I think it was purely a cricketing decision. We saw the window period to get Hardik back as a player. For me, it’s a transition phase. A lot of people don’t understand in India, people get quite emotional But you know you take the emotions away from it. I think it’s just more of a cricketing decision that was made and I do think it is going to bring the best out of Rohit as a person as a player. Just let him go out and enjoy and score some good runs,” Mark Boucher says on the Smash Sports podcast.

 

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Boucher stressed out on the point that captaincy was taking a toll on Rohit.

“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. Now he also leads India as well. It is that he walks into a place and there are 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,” he says.

“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 as a player. We believe he has 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 take 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.”

Boucher also lauded Pandya’s captaincy, who has gone on to win the IPL in his first year as captain with Gujarat Titans.

“He is a Mumbai Indians boy. He went to another franchise, won the title in his first year, and ended up runner-up in his second year. So there’s obviously some very good leadership skills as well, “says Boucher.

https://newsozzy.com/why-rohit-sharma-was-replaced-by-hardik-pandya-as-mumbai-indias-captain/13722