Why Mumbai Indians removed Rohit Sharma’s stewardship

In the brief annals of the IPL, the Mumbai Indians executed one of the most puzzling transactions when they re-signed Gujarat Titans’ championship-winning captain Hardik Pandya, two years after failing to retain him. They then once more captured attention by removing Rohit Sharma, who had led them to five IPL championships, from the stewardship.

Although MI received considerable backlash from their supporters on social media regarding the leadership change, head coach Mark Boucher described it for the first time as a “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 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.

Boucher emphasized that the objective of the MI think tank was to relieve Rohit, who has had two lackluster seasons at the crease relative to his usual caliber, of the pressure and ostentation associated with stewardship. Rohit accumulated 268 runs scored at a strikeout rate of 120.18 as his team finished last in the standings in 2022. Although he performed better in 2023 with 332 runs scored at 132.80, his team was eliminated 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 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.

“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,” Boucher said.

He will continue to captain India, so there will be some anticipation, but perhaps we can get the most out of Rohit Sharma when he enters the IPL by relieving him of the additional burden he may have felt as captain. We desire to observe him enjoying himself while spending some time with his lovely family while he is having fun.”

Hardik, the successor to Rohit, was lauded by Boucher for his immediate influence over the past two seasons. Hardik, whom the Gujarat Titans selected prior to the auction preceding the 2022 season, guided them to victory that year. In 2023, they finished in second place.

“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 said.