It’s been weeks since Hardik Pandya replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain of the Mumbai Indians team. The change, which remains one of the most talked about topics in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, hasn’t just had fans but also some former cricketers baffled. Rohit Sharma is the most influential skipper for Mumbai Indians in IPL since 2013 and has led Mumbai Indians to record 5 titles in IPL .
While Rohit Sharma continues to lead the Indian national cricket team, it’s Hardik Pandya who captains his IPL franchise who has first 3 matches on his return to Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans early in trade window before the auction for IPL 2024.
Rohit Sharma’s journey with Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma’s journey with the Mumbai Indians has been nothing short of legendary. Since joining the franchise in 2011 as a promising young talent, Rohit has left an indelible mark, featuring in 199 IPL matches adorned in the iconic Blue and Gold attire. Throughout his tenure, he has amassed an impressive tally of 5,084 runs at an average of 29.39 and a strike rate of 129.86. Notably, he has registered one century and 34 fifties in 195 innings for MI, with a highest score of 109*.
Upon assuming the captaincy from Ricky Ponting in 2013, Rohit ushered in a golden era for the franchise. Under his leadership, Mumbai Indians clinched the IPL trophy on five occasions within a span of 10 years (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020), along with two playoff appearances.
Last year, Rohit’s captaincy baton was passed to Hardik Pandya, who ascended to the role following his stellar performances, particularly during his tenure with the Gujarat Titans (GT), where he emerged as a standout player, culminating in a title-winning debut season in 2022.
Post this appointment in the first three matches of the IPL , Rohit Sharma playing under Hardik Pandya MI has suffered defeats in both of their IPL 2024 matches against Gujarat Titans (GT) and SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). Rohit has scored 43, 26 and 0 runs, respectively, in these games. Former Indian player now commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu has slammed the Mumbai Indians management for strapping an excellent skipper in form of Rohit Sharma.
Indian commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu questions Mumbai Indians for sacking sensational Rohit Sharma as skipper for IPL 2024
Navjot Singh Sidhu, former India cricketer-turned-commentator, echoed the sentiments of thousands of Rohit Sharma fans as he asked what wrong did the Hitman do, to be removed as Mumbai’s skipper. Sidhu took to a social media platform to convey his admiration for Rohit Sharma’s talent and value to the Mumbai Indians (MI) team. He shared a video along with a caption suggesting that even if an elephant is covered in dust, it will still command respect, implying that Rohit’s quality shines through despite any setbacks.
“Nobody can digest the fact that India’s hero, India’s captain, is not the captain of our franchise. ‘What wrong has he done?’ is what fans of the franchise would be thinking,” Navjot Sidhu said on Star Sports.
“But what does he have to do? There is nothing that succeeds like success. If he had won these two matches, there wouldn’t have been any noise,” he further added.
There were also rumors that Hardik would be elevated as India’s skipper, at least in the shortest format, and would lead the team in the T20 World Cup 2024. But, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah confirmed that Rohit Sharma would remain India’s skipper and captain the team in the showpiece event which starts in June this year.
Sidhu feels if the announcement from the BCCI had come earlier, Mumbai Indians might not have decided to replace him with Hardik as the franchise’s captain.
“If India would have announced earlier in October that Rohit Sharma would return as the India T20I captain in 2024, then the franchise might not have taken the call. Because they would have thought that how can India captain not be the captain of the franchise,” Navjot Singh Sidhu said.
As things stand, Hardik is the captain of Mumbai Indians while Rohit continues to lead the Indian team in all three formats and fans would only like to see both of them succeeding in their respective captainship stints in IPL 2024 as well as the ICC T20I World Cup later in June.