Ritika Sajdeh addresses Mark Boucher’s remarks on Mumbai Indians’ captaincy alteration for IPL 2024

IPL 2024
Steven
February 6, 2024

Ritika and Rohit (source: X)

Rohit Sharma’s wife Ritika Sajdeh responded to Mumbai Indian’s head coach Mark Boucher about the reason of replacing Hardik Pandya as Mumbai Indians captain ahead of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL).

The official Instagram page of Smash Sports uploaded the video of Mark Boucher’s interview. Ritika Sajdeh commented on the video, “So many things wrong with this…”

Mark Boucher stated that naming Hardik Pandya as a captain was a cricketing decision and fans should not be emotional about it. He also stated that Hardik Pandya as a new Mumbai Indians (MI) captain is a part of the transition phase starting for Mumbai Indians.

“I think it was truly 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 earlier on the Smash Sports podcast.

Rohit Sharma built a legacy for captaincy of 10-years for Mumbai Indians

In IPL 2013 Mumbai Indians name Rohit Sharma as new captain. Earlier Ricky Ponting was the skipper of Mumbai Indians. Since Rohit Sharma as a captain, Mumbai Indians have won five IPL trophies. Rohit Sharma is among the leading run-scorers in IPL history.

While Hardik Pandya made his Mumbai Indians debut in 2015 under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. Hardik Pandya was a part of the team until 2021. In his six seasons with Mumbai Indians, he has won four titles with them. In 2022 he played for Gujarat Titans in IPL. In his first season as captain, he won the IPL title with Gujarat Titans. In his second season as a captain, he again led Gujarat Titans to another final but lost to MS Dhoni Chennai Super Kings.

Just before the IPL 2024 mini-auction, he was traded to Mumbai Indians. Mark Boucher has shown trust in him saying that Hardik has the potential to take Mumbai Indians to new heights.