Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) star Ambati Rayudu has wished for Rohit Sharma to join the MS Dhoni-led Yellow Army ahead of the IPL 2025 season.
At present, all the ten IPL franchises are gearing up for IPL 2024 which gets underway on March 22 in Chennai. Before the season-opener, Rayudu wished for Rohit to become a part of CSK, MI’s arch-rivals, from the 2025 season onwards and win titles with them as well. Rohit was replaced by Hardik Pandya as the MI skipper for IPL 2024, in Dec 2023, and will feature only as a player in the upcoming season.
MI’s move to replace Rohit with Hardik raised a lot of eyebrows. It will be interesting to see how if fits under captain Hardik and if the latter can replicate his captaincy success in MI, IPL’s joint-most successful franchise. After winning four titles with Rohit-led MI, Hardik moved to the Gujarat Titans (GT) and captained them in 2022 and 2023, leading them to the final on successive editions and winning in 2022.
Rohit has earned the right to take that call’
“I want to see him play for CSK in the near future. He has played so long for Mumbai Indians. It would be nice if he can play for CSK and win there as well. That’s (captaincy at CSK) upon him. Rohit has earned the right to take that call. It’s his call on whether or not he wants to lead or not,” Rayudu told News24 while also mentioning that MI must have informed Rohit of the captaincy change.
At present, there are no talks of Rohit willing to make a move from MI. The IPL 2024 season will give a clear picture if he still fits into MI’s scheme of things, without the leadership tag. He has won the IPL six times, five as MI captain. Hence, he remains a big name in their setup.