Mark Boucher reveals the decision of appointing Hardik Pandya as new captain of Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher has revealed the decision to appoint Hardik Pandya as the new captain of the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He stated that it is a truly cricketing decision as the team is going through the transition period. Mumbai Indians are trying to get the best out of Rohit Sharma, he added.

Just 4 days ahead of the mini-auction 2024 Hardik Pandya was traded to Mumbai Indians. Further, he was named captain of Mumbai Indians. Before moving to Mumbai Indians, he played as a captain for Gujarat Titians for two years and won one IPL title with them. As the trade happened the team lost 400,00 followers on social media within an hour. Many fans were disappointed as it ended Rohit Sharma’s captaincy legacy.

“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 and as a player. Just let him go out and enjoy and score some good runs,” Mark Boucher said on the Smash Sports podcast.

Rohit Sharma’s poor form of runs counites for Mumbai Indians

“I mean one of the things I have spoken about is when you arrive at the IPL and he (Chris Morris) will be able to tell you as well that there’s a lot of stuff going on, there are photoshoots and this and that and a lot of emphasis is not actually on the cricket. It’s more about the advertising and all that sort of stuff,” Boucher said.

In IPL 2013 Rohit Sharma was named the team captain and in his 10-year time of captaincy, he won 5 IPL titles with Mumbai Indians. Mark Bocher praised Rohit Sharma’s captaincy skills and has also stated that he has not scored runs in the IPL for a few seasons. He also stated that taking off his captaincy burden from the shoulders will allow him to play freely for the team.

In the 2023 IPL season, Rohit Sharma has scored 332 runs from 16 matches. While in the 2022 season, he scored 268 runs from 14 matches with an average of less than 20. He seems to be in struggle in for runs since the last few IPL seasons.