Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher highlighted that transition is the primary reason behind replacing Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as captain. The former South Africa keeper-batter explained that it was a cricketing decision and that fans must keep their emotions aside.
The five-time champions stunned the cricketing fraternity by replacing Rohit Sharma as the captain ahead of IPL 2024 in late 2023. Rohit took over as the captain midway through IPL 2013 and has spearheaded them to five titles, the last of which came in 2020. The decision to replace Rohit didn't go down well with the fans, leading the franchise's social media accounts to lose over 3k followers.
Speaking on Smash Sports Podcast, Boucher reckons the shift of captaincy from Rohit to Hardik will bring the best out of the veteran.
"I think it was purely a cricketing decision. We saw the window period to get Hardik back as a player. For me itโs a transition phase. A lot of people donโt understand in India, people get quite emotional But you know you take the emotions away from it. I think itโs 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."
"He got some great value to add" - Mark Boucher
Boucher believes Rohit going away from the spotlight of captaincy should allow him to make more runs and added:
"We believe he got some great value to add and just go out there and actually enjoy it without the hype of being a captain. He is still going to captain India so that hypeโs gonna be there but when he steps into the IPL maybe just taking that extra bit of pressure off him as a captain an maybe we get the best out of Rohit Sharma."
The right-hander had a forgettable season in 2023, managing 332 runs in 16 matches at 20.75.
