Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma reacted sharply to Gujarat Titans (GT) skipper Hardik Pandya's comments regarding the approach followed by the Men in Blue in the Indian Premier League (IPL). After Hardik stated that MI's formula is to create a superstar team and that's how the franchise has tasted so much success over the year, Rohit fired back at his former MI teammate by explaining that the Mumbai-based franchise doesn't buy superstar players but make players superstars.
Rohit underlined the work done by the franchise's scouting team that has unearthed so many great talents over the years. Players like Hardik and Jasprit Bumrah evolved into superstars only after Mumbai Indians' scouting team spotted the talent they possessed.
"Nehal Wadhera and Tilak Verma will repeat the story of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya and they will be huge stars for MI and India in the future but the MI coaching team and scouts have worked really hard on them,” Rohit said in an interview with JioCinema.
"Bhai hum bana rahe he idhar baith ke yaar. Hum jaa rahe he unhe dekh rahe he. Hamari team jaa rahi h dekh rahi he unko aur leke aa rahi h. (Brother, we are making them. We are going and seeing them. Our team is going and bringing them here).
"MI is a superstar team, MI scouts work day and night, saw Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Krunal Pandya, and then picked them. We worked really hard for that. We know how to use players with his maximum potential. I have seen with my own eyes that how hard scouts and coaches work with players and a lot of credit goes to scouts. All these players were brought in the auction and were not directly picked. Ishan Kishan played for different franchisees before he came to Mi and look how is he performing," he added.
Earlier, Hardik had compared the difference between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and MI. The Indian all-rounder came up with an interesting explanation as delved into the make-up of two of the most successful players in the cash-rich tournament's history.
“There are two kind of success you can get. One is get the bestest people possible from A to B which I feel MI had, those few years where we’ve won or have the best environment possible for you to win which has been a CSK type where no matters who players are they get the best out of them. That was more inspiring for me to not get the best players but to get the best environment and get this thing,” Pandya had said on JioCinema.
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