Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher has spoken out regarding the team’s decision to replace Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as captain for the upcoming IPL season. There have been conflicting views on Pandya’s move from the Gujarat Titans to the Mumbai Indians, and the team management has experienced heavy criticism for captaincy change.
The Mumbai Indians (MI) became the first Indian Premier League (IPL) team to win five titles, captained by Rohit Sharma. Hardik Pandya has been named captain of Mumbai Indians (MI), one of the most successful teams in the cash-rich league, and he will bear a lot of responsibility to carry on the team’s legacy.
Speaking on the Smash Sports podcast, Mark Boucher believes that the captaincy change is solely based on cricketing decisions and that it is a transitional period for the team in the IPL. He believes that people become more emotional when their favourite player is removed from captaincy and that less burden would allow Rohit Sharma to play with more freedom for the team.
“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.
Mumbai Indians last won the IPL in 2020 under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. The five-time champions missed the playoffs in 2021 and 2022 and were ousted in the first elimination match in 2023, and would like to win the championship in the upcoming IPL season.
He Has Been Captaining For Ages And He Has Done Really Well For Mumbai Indians – Mark Boucher
Mark Boucher heaped praise on Rohit Sharma for his brilliant achievement over the years, highlighting his contribution to the team’s success in the cash-rich league and admitting that he hasn’t done well as a player in the last few seasons but has helped the team’s cause as captain.
“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,” Mark Boucher added.
Hardik Pandya led the Gujarat Titans to their maiden title in 2022. He took the team to the final earlier this year, but they fell to the Chennai Super Kings in the title match. The Indian all-rounder has led the Indian squad in the T20 format of the game following the end of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
