Saikiran Uppuluri
Saikiran Uppuluri
The Mumbai Indians (MI) pulled off one of the most surprising trades in IPL history when they brought back Hardik Pandya, just two years after not retaining the all-rounder. Pandya had led the Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in 2022, his first season as captain.
In an equally stunning move, MI then decided to take the captaincy away from Rohit Sharma, who had led them to a record 5 IPL crowns. The leadership change drew strong reactions from MI fans on social media.
However, MI head coach Mark Boucher has now shed light on the thinking behind the call. Speaking on the Smash Sports podcast, Boucher said it was a purely cricketing decision.
“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,” Boucher explained.
He stressed that the intention was to relieve Rohit of the burden and hype of captaincy, after he had endured a couple of relatively quiet seasons with the bat.
“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’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,” 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 as a player. We believe he got some great value to add and just go out there and actually enjoy it without the hype of being a captain,” he added.
Boucher praised new skipper Hardik Pandya for making an instant impact as captain of the Gujarat Titans.
“He is a Mumbai Indians boy. He went to other franchise, won the title in first year, ended up runner-up in his second year. So there’s obviously some very good leadership skills as well,” Boucher remarked.
The coach reiterated that taking the pressure of captaincy off could see the best of Rohit Sharma this IPL season. MI will be hoping their leadership transition pays dividends as they look to bounce back after a poor 2022 season.
