On Friday, the officials of the Mumbai Indians announced Hardik Pandya as their captain, replacing Rohit Sharma. Read to know the reaction of MI fans.
Yesterday, the Mumbai Indians made the biggest change in their team four days before the auction, surprising many cricket fans. Mumbai Indians announced Hardik Pandya as their new captain, replacing Rohit Sharma, for the upcoming Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024). With this momentous announcement, Rohit Sharma’s remarkable captaincy comes to an end. During his time, MI won five IPL championships and became one of the competition’s most potent teams.
This change passes the 10-year-long legacy of Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya. The team’s most successful and longest-serving captain is none other than the renowned all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Pandya will take over as captain from the enduring and adored Rohit Sharma. This change in the leadership signifies a significant turning point for the Mumbai Indians, who will now be led by the well-known cricket player Hardik Pandya throughout the forthcoming season of IPL.
Where this change brings freshness into the team, but on the other side, fans of the Mumbai Indians are not at all happy with this decision. It affected the fans so much that the official Instagram page of the Mumbai Indians lost 1.5 lakh followers just a few hours after the announcement. This abrupt change in direction caused a surge of discontent among the team’s followers, many of whom vented their complaints on social media.
The captaincy impact of Rohit Sharma is unmatched, and after Mahendra Singh Dhoni, any captain who is celebrated in a huge manner than Sharma will be seen as the most victorious captain in the history of the Indian Premier League. By showing their disapproval of the decision, one user commented on the post of Mumbai Indians that even Surya or Bumrah is okay. But Pandya is not acceptable. Rohit should not play under Hardik’s captaincy.
In an announcement, the officials of the Mumbai Indians stated that this change in leadership inside MI was part of their future planning, and they also thanked Rohit Sharma for his exemplary service to the franchise. As per the reports, one video also went viral after the announcement in which it can be seen that people are burning Mumbai Indians’ jerseys and caps to show their unacceptance of Pandya’s captaincy.
Hardik Pandya played an integral part for the Mumbai Indians from 2015 to 2021, in which he was part of four winning IPL matches. In 2022, the Mumbai Indians released Hardik Pandya at the mega auction, after which he was bought by the new IPL team, the Gujarat Titans, as a captain. The Gujarat Titans won their maiden title in 2022, led by Pandya, who became the first captain after Shane Warne to lead a team to the title in its first year. Last month, the Mumbai Indians again bought Hardik Pandya after being part of the Gujarat Titans for two seasons, and Shubham Gill replaced him as captain of the Gujarat Titans.
On the other hand, in the IPL and Champions League T20, Rohit Sharma captained MI 163 times; he won 91 games, tied four, and lost 68. Mumbai made it to five IPL finals under his leadership: in 2019, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022. They won all five. However, Mumbai has had less success in the last three seasons. They lost to the Titans in the Second Qualifier of the 2023 tournament, and they were eliminated from the competition in 2021 and 2022.
