Follow UsRohit Sharma will undoubtedly go down as one of the best players and captains to grace the Indian Premier League (IPL). He has led the franchise to five IPL titles and a couple of Champions League T20 wins.
Hence, the fans did not take too kindly to Hardik Pandya's appointment as captain ahead of the 2024 IPL season. In fact, they did not spare the new skipper whenever they got the opportunity, often booing him or shouting Rohit's name whenever he came out to bat or took the ball.
On May 17 (Friday) against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), it was no different. With Pandya as captain, it has led to speculation over Rohit's future at MI. He did play for them this season, but will he be around next year, too? Head coach Mark Boucher provides an update.
"To be honest, there hasn't been many conversations about Rohit's future," Boucher said at the post-match press conference.
"I spoke to him last night or the night before, just to do basically a little review of the season. And I said, 'What's next for Rohit Sharma?' and he said to me 'World Cup'. And that's perfect. That's all I need to know about what Rohit Sharma's future is.
"For me, he is the master of his own destiny. It's a big auction next season, who knows what's going to happen? We'll just have to take each day as it comes."
Boucher also feels that certain off-field things may have also clouded Hardik's him but believes that the all-rounder is still a good leader. Hardik ended IPL 2024 with 216 runs at a strike rate of 143.04, and with the ball, he picked up 11 wickets in 12 innings, going at 10.75 an over.
"I think that if [Hardik] was here, he'd also be disappointed in his performances," he said.
"From a captain's perspective, I thought he had some good games. There's a lot of stuff going on around him that maybe clouded his thoughts every now and again, which I said is tough for him as a leader as well.
"He certainly had a lot of support within our dressing room but it's a tough thing to go through as a player. There's a lot of sympathy for what he's going through. A lot of the stuff he is going through is, I think, uncalled for. It will certainly be a learning curve for Hardik as he grows in leadership.
"While times are tough now, a couple of things will pass and make him a tougher leader and it will certainly grow him in the role as well. I still think there are some fantastic things coming from Hardik Pandya as a leader."
MI ended their IPL 2024 campaign with an 18-run loss at the hands of LSG. They managed to finish with just four wins this season and lie at the bottom of the table. This is MI's second bottom-placed finish for MI in three seasons. Boucher admitred that the team's performances this season was under-par.
"[There are] things that we need improvement on, whether on the field or off the field stuff," Boucher said.
"We've got some great heads within the management team as well, and we'll sit down, and we'll find a way of how to make it better ultimately for the players to produce the sort of cricket that we know these players can produce, which was under par this season.
"There were a lot of things happening, a lot of moving parts this season, which wasn't great to be a part of at certain times. There are certain things that did affect individuals, which ultimately did affect the team. So those are the sort of things we need to sit down and address and hopefully make some good calls going forward as well to address the off-field stuff."
Rohit came in as an impact player on Friday, and smashed a 38-ball 68 to keep MI in the came in pursuir of 215. However, the crowd got into it in the first innings itself, constantly booing Hardik, which Boucher felt wasn't a great sight. However, that has been the theme of the tournament for Hardik and MI.
"It wasn't great hearing all the boos," Boucher said.
"Certainly, I felt sorry for Hardik as well. It's never nice to go through something like that. So yeah, there are certain things we need to address. And we are going to address them.
"Now is not probably the right time. Everyone is very disappointed and emotional, so no good decision will get made in the nearest sort of time. We need to go back. We need to evaluate exactly what's going on."
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