Rohit Sharma (L) and Hardik Pandya© AFP
Former Indian cricket team star Manoj Tiwary believes that Mumbai Indians can give the Mumbai Indians captaincy back to Rohit Sharma ahead of the franchise’s next game in IPL 2024. Under new skipper Hardik Pandya‘s leadership, MI have lost three matches in a row and they currently lie at the bottom of the points table. The decision to replace Rohit with Hardik as the MI skipper caused a lot of stir among the fans and experts ahead of the tournament. With MI facing Delhi Capitals next on April 7, Tiwary said that the change in captaincy can happen in the break.
“It can be a clue that he is under pressure. if someone is not bowling after opening the bowling for the past three matches and that too on a pitch where the ball was swinging. There was swing in the first innings and even Mumbai Indians bowlers including (Jasprit) Bumrah produced a lot of swing. Hardik’s ball would have swung as well but the welcome that he got in Mumbai put him under pressure.”
“I want to see something big – I have this feeling somewhere that during this break, MI may hand the captaincy back to Rohit. It is a huge call because as much as I understand the franchises and owners, they do not hesitate in taking these decisions. You started it when you took the captaincy away from Rohit and gave it to Hardik. Changing a five-time champion captain is a huge call.”
“The team has no points on the board and the captaincy has also been all over the place. Not like the captaincy has been very good and they have been unlucky. There have been mistakes when it comes to captaincy.” Tiwary said during the discussion on Cricbuzz.
Legendary India batter Virender Sehwag was also part of the discussion panel and he said that MI once lost five matches under Rohit’s captaincy before winning the tournament in the same season. As a result, he thinks that predicting a move like removing Hardik as captain in too premature.
“The thing that he said about Pandya – I think that was a bit hasty. Even under Rohit’s captaincy, the team has lost five matches in a row. That year, they went on to become champions. So, we need to show some patience. I think it is too early to say that and we need to wait for two more matches before we can make such a prediction,” the former Indian cricket team batter replied.
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