The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians ignited a storm on the internet by announcing the replacement of Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as the captain of the team. The decision sparked widespread backlash from fans, leading to the franchise witnessing a significant drop in social media followers.
Coach Mark Boucher attempted to justify the leadership switch in a podcast, citing it as a "cricketing" decision aimed at easing the burden on Rohit Sharma while providing Hardik Pandya with an opportunity to further develop his captaincy skills.
"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 said on Smash Sports podcast.
A day after Boucher's interview went viral, Rohit Sharma's wife, Ritika Sajdeh, took to Instagram to express her discontent with Boucher's comments. Ritika wrote, "So many things wrong with this..." and within no time, her reaction went viral on the internet, only adding fuel to the fire and intensifying the debate surrounding the captaincy change.
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Boucher continued to defend the decision, highlighting Rohit Sharma's stellar track record as a captain for both Mumbai Indians and the Indian national team.
Boucher continued to defend the decision, highlighting Rohit Sharma's stellar track record as a captain for both Mumbai Indians and the Indian national team. He stressed the need for Rohit to enjoy his cricket without the added pressure of captaincy, thereby enabling him to perform at his best, "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.”
"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," Boucher said.
"He is still going to captain India so that hype's going be there but when he steps into the IPL maybe just taking that extra bit of pressure off him as a captain an maybe we get the best out of Rohit Sharma. We want to see him playing with a smile on his face."
