Rohit Sharma’s Coach Breaks Silence On Mumbai Indians Betraying Him For Hardik Pandya

Before the start of the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a major controversy broke out when the Mumbai Indians appointed the Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya as their new captain by betraying Rohit Sharma in the position, who propelled the side to five titles in the league.

The unexpected decision created fire among the fans as they went berserk after the new captain. Many fans at the Wankhede Stadium booed Hardik during the toss or when he was near the boundary line, as the same story took place when he played against the Gujarat Titans, whom he led during the three seasons from 2022.

Mumbai Indians’ flop show under Hardik Pandya in 2024

Rohit Sharma kept on following Hardik’s guidelines for the entire season in 2024. The Mumbai Indians did not enjoy a great start in the campaign with three defeats before they got back on track with two consecutive wins against Delhi and Bengaluru. But the good time did not last long.

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Mumbai fell short against Chennai at home by 20 runs, before winning against Punjab three days later. Since then, they faced four successive defeats as the dream of qualifying for the playoffs vanished. An 18-run defeat in their final group-stage clash against the Lucknow Super Giants saw them finishing at the bottom of the points table with four victories in 14 games at a net run rate of -0.318.

In the last edition, Rohit Sharma smashed 417 runs in 14 innings at an average of 32.07 and a strike rate of 150, shouldering on a century and a couple of half-centuries at the best score of unbeaten 105 runs against the Chennai Super Kings.

Hardik, on the other hand, went through a very tough period with both bat and ball in hand. It seemed that the outside noise of the crowd had made a huge impact on his batting skills.

Dinesh Lad reveals Rohit Sharma’s reaction after losing IPL captaincy

Hardik led the Titans to the title in the inaugural season in 2021 before shouldering the same side to the final and losing the title clash in 2023 against Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad. Mumbai bought him back in the auction, but he failed to repeat the same glory for the five-time champions.

Rohit Sharma’s childhood coach, Dinesh Lad, has weighed in with his opinion on the controversial year and reckoned that Rohit should never have been removed from the leadership.

“It was the franchise's decision. Rohit didn't say that he didn't want to play. He shouldn't have lost the captaincy, Rohit should've been captain. The way he led the Mumbai Indians to five IPL titles, he should've been the skipper. But it was the franchise's decision, I can't say anything on that.” Lad expressed to YouTuber Vickey Lalwani in a podcast.

Lad clarified that he has no clue of the exact rationale behind the decision, but he felt that there was no discord between Hardik and Rohit Sharma, dispelling any rumors of a rift.

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“I don't want to speak anything on that. He's a good cricketer. As I said earlier, it was the franchise's decision, it wasn't Hardik vs Rohit.” Lad mentioned.

Rohit Sharma is to lead Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025?

For his one-match, Hardik won’t play the opening game for the Mumbai side in the IPL 2025 against the Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on March 23.

That could be a chance for the management to go with Rohit Sharma as the leader besides keeping Suryakumar Yadav as the vice-captain. Jasprit Bumrah, due to his back injury, is likely to be out of the auction for the first two weeks.