Last year, Mumbai Indians (MI), the five-time champions and one of the most successful franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL), made a bold move by appointing Hardik Pandya as captain, replacing Rohit Sharma. However, this decision by the MI franchise did not sit well with the fans, who expressed their displeasure on social media and even resorted to booing Hardik Pandya during matches. Commenting on this, former Indian batter Robin Uthappa offered an explanation.
Robin Uthappa recalled a similar decision made by the MI franchise back in 2013 when Rohit Sharma replaced Australian legend Ricky Ponting as captain mid-season, a move that was accepted by the seniors.
"Hardik Pandya is their discovery. They did it through their scouting methods. So they are essentially looking at a pure Mumbai Indians boy. When captaincy was given to Rohit Sharma it was taken from Ricky Ponting in the middle of the season. This is the same franchise. All the senior guys Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, and Ricky Ponting supported Rohit," Uthappa said on the TRS podcast.
Rohit's minimal return highlighted by Uthappa
Uthappa further pointed out that the change in captaincy occurred due to Rohit's lackluster performance with the bat in the last four seasons, despite MI winning their last title in 2020.
"In the last four years, statistically... I'm never gonna question the calibre and the gloriousness of Rohit Sharma the batter. But look at it from a franchise perspective. They won in 2020. They didn't win in the last three years. And the last three years, Rohit scored less than 300 runs (only once in 2022). So there's a lack of success as a batter, a lack of success as a captain. In just the IPL cause everywhere else, he has scored runs," Uthappa opined.
He suggested that these reasons might have led the stakeholders to consider moving on from Rohit as captain. Despite finishing in the fourth position in the IPL 2023, MI was defeated in the playoffs by the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the second qualifier.
"So there is a reason MI landed on this consensus that maybe we have to look beyond Rohit. Maybe this conversation came about at the end of the last season. They may have conversations in different directions. Then Rohit Sharmna's success at the ODI World Cup came through. His greatness as a player and leader was there for everyone to see," he further added.
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