The removal of Rohit Sharma from the Mumbai Indians captaincy and the promotion of Hardik Pandya as the new leader brought a strong wave of criticism on social media with fans blasting the franchise for its decision. The five-time IPL winners MI made the second most expensive trade in the tournament when they acquired Hardik Pandya for a handsome amount of Rs 15 crore from Gujarat Titans. Meanwhile, MI head coach Mark Boucher has opened up on the bold decision of the leadership change in the team.
Boucher said that this was a cricketing decision and the franchise thought of taking away the pressure and hype of captaincy away from Rohit. "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," Boucher said on the Smash Sports podcast.
"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 added.
'Maybe taking an extra bit of pressure off him': Boucher
The former South African International then said that as Rohit captains India in the International setup, this decision to take his captaincy might take pressure off him when he comes to play the IPL.
"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," the former South African cricketer 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, spending a bit of time with his beautiful family," he added.
Hardik Pandya was earlier part of the MI setup for seven years from 2015 onwards. He was picked by Gujarat Titans ahead of the 2022 season in the draft for Rs 15 crore. Now he returns to home after spending two years with GT - one when they won it in 2022 and the other when they were runners-up in 2023.
