Why Rohit Sharma Lost his Captaincy With the Mumbai Indians

When the Mumbai Indians welcomed the Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya back to the team two years after he went to the Gujarat Titans, they pulled off one of the more shocking IPL trades in the competition's history. Then, they made headlines once more when they removed Rohit Sharma, the guy who captained them to five IPL championships, from the captaincy.

The head coach explained -

While MI received a lot of backlash from its supporters on social media for the leadership change, head coach Mark Boucher said, in his first public comments, that it was a "cricketing decision."

Besides fans, the ex-captain's wife, Ritika Sajdeh was also not happy with this decision and she expressed her grief through instagram by commenting on Mark Boucher's comment.

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 the Smash Sports podcast.

Boucher emphasized that the MI's think tank wants to relieve Rohit of the pressure and publicity that comes with being captain, given he has had a few below-average seasons at bat. When his side was at the bottom of the points table in 2022, Rohit scored 268 runs at a strike rate of 120.18. He performed better in 2023 (332 runs at 132.80), but his team was defeated in the second qualifying round.

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 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.

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 enjoy it without the hype of being a captain
~Boucher said.

Rohit Sharma will still captain India, but perhaps when he plays in the IPL, this decision of MI will relieve some of the burden on him to lead the team and allow us to see the best of Rohit Sharma. "We hope to see him having fun and enjoying some time with his lovely family while grinning".

Pandya worthy of praises -

Boucher praised Hardik, for his instant impact over the previous two seasons. The Gujarat Titans, who selected Hardik before to the 2022 season's auction, won the championship that year and finished second in 2023.

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 some very good leadership skills as well
~Boucher said.