In a stunning decision ahead of the IPL 2024 mini-auction, Mumbai Indians—surprisingly—removed Rohit Sharma from the captaincy and announced Hardik Pandya as their new leader. While most people were expecting Hardik to take over the reins from Rohit at some point in time, the timing surprised many. In fact, MI didn’t even wait for a season and handed over the captain’s armband to Hardik, which did not go down well with a section of the MI fanbase.
Throughout the season, the fans showed their displeasure by booing Hardik during the matches, which epitomizes an attachment to Rohit as the leader of MI. In fact, it got to a point where, in one of the IPL 2024 matches, even commentator Sanjay Manjrekar had to intervene at the toss, begging the crowd to “behave” as they booed Hardik.
Despite all this, MI’s pacer Jasprit Bumrah revealed that the team rallied around Hardik during this testing period. In an interview with the Indian Express, Bumrah stressed how important team unity was.
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He explained, “You have to take it on your chin. That’s where the inner circle comes in. We, as a team, don’t encourage or promote that. We don’t think it’s warranted. We were with him, talking to him, if he needed support. Certain things are beyond your control.”
J Bumrah on crowd booing Hardik Pandya during IPL said:
“we were with Hardik, talking to him, if he needed any support. Certain things are out of our control”.#pakvsban #ipl2025 pic.twitter.com/ohi3APFgqH
— Irfan Ullah (@irfanul82246383) August 17, 2024
It was not really the season that went according to plan for MI. The five-time IPL champions finished last in the points table, making it one of the worst performances they have had over the past decade. Interestingly, Rohit Sharma was used as an Impact Player only towards the latter part of the season; hence, this could mark a change for his role within the franchise.
Still so much in store as MI will plan and move ahead, where the future for Rohit in the team remains uncertain. Having just led India to the title win in the 2024 T20 World Cup, Rohit may look for a captaincy role at some other IPL franchise.
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Though Suryakumar Yadav—who outshone Hardik to become India’s T20I captain—may eye other captaincy opportunities despite being retained by MI in the mega-auction for IPL 2018, these many next seasons are definitely going to bring more changes as MI, along with its players, will evolve through these transitions.
