People in India get emotional but...: MI coach on Hardik replacing Rohit as captain ahead of IPL 2024

Before the end of 2023, the Mumbai Indians (MI) franchise dropped a bomb by announcing Hardik Pandya as the captain, endingRohit Sharma's glorious captaincy era. Hardik was brought back by the MI franchise, from Gujarat Titans (GT), in a mega trade ahead of the IPL 2024 auction. With him replacing Rohit, the move met with mixed reactions.

Two months since Hardik's appointment, MI head coach Mark Boucher opined on the team management's decision regarding the big call. Boucher stated that 'it was a purely cricketing decision' and lesser responsibilities will help Rohit enjoy as a player,following some ordinary runwith the bat in the recent IPL seasons.

Speaking on Smash Sports Podcast, Boucher said, "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."

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'This is anopportunity for him to step as a player'

The South African further opined, "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."

He added, "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."

On Hardik filling the big shoes of Rohit -- under whom MI have won five IPL titles (joint-most along with Chennai Super Kings) -- Boucher said, "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."

With the likes of Rohit, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, etc., Hardik will enjoy a lot of support when he steps on the field as the MI captain in the forthcoming IPL season.

It will be interesting to see how he responds to the challenge of replacing Rohit as the captain of ahigh-profile franchise. He has tasted success as GT skipper, leading them to the IPL title in their maiden season in 2022, however, captaining Mumbai will be a different experience altogether.

MI squad for IPL 2024: Ishan Kishan, Vishnu Vinod,Rohit Sharma, Tim David, Suryakumar Yadav, N. Tilak Varma, Dewald Brevis, Hardik Pandya (c), Romario Shepherd, Nehal Wadhera, Shams Mulani, Gerald Coetzee, Mohammad Nabi, Shivalik Sharma, Naman Dhir, Jasprit Bumrah, Jason Behrendorff, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Arjun Tendulkar, Piyush Chawla, Dilshan Madushanka, Nuwan Thushara, Anshul Kamboj, Shreyas Gopal.