Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians broke the internet as the decision to replace Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as the captain of the franchise was announced.
The franchise ended up losing thousands of followers on social media as fans condemned the decision. After coach Mark Boucher explained the logic behind this change in the leadership structure in a podcast, Rohit’s wife Ritika took to social media to post a comment that triggered a fresh storm on the internet.
Boucher called the captaincy chnage decision purely a ‘cricketing’ one, as the franchise intended to lift some burden off Rohit’s shoulders while giving Hardik the opportunity to continue growing as a captain, having already led the Gujarat Titans to two successive IPL finals.
“I think it was purely a cricketing decision. We saw the window period to get Hardik back as a player. For me it’s a transition phase. A lot of people don’t understand in India, people get quite emotional, but you know you take the emotions away from it.
I think it’s 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.