Veteran opening batter Rohit Sharma opened up on Mumbai Indians (MI)’s slow start to life under new captain Hardik Pandya in IPL 2024. After a decade at the helm, Rohit was stripped off his captaincy ahead of the new season with Hardik replacing him, having re-joined the five-time champions from Gujarat Titans (GT). Hardik had led GT to the title in their first season in IPL back in 2022 before guiding them to a runners up finish last season. However, ahead of the IPL 2024 players auction, MI traded Hardik from GT as part of an all-cash deal.
However, Hardik’s captaincy stint so far has been a challenging one to say the least with the franchise sitting second to bottom with just two wins from six games.
Hardik has been booed everywhere Mumbai Indians have played, including the Wankhede Stadium.
Speaking on the Club Prairie Fire podcast, Rohit opened up on his journey as captain and also shed light on MI’s slow start to IPL 2024.
“All these years actually, this has been the story of Mumbai Indians where we started pretty slow and then things start to change. I guess it has to do with when you have new players in the squad, it’s just about because the captain for the last ten years was stagnant, the coaches have changed for few years, but the captain has been stagnant,” said Rohit.
“I actually went with some thought process and I wanted to know from the people who would come in, to get them into my thought process because I know how IPL works and what it needs to be a successful team, so it takes time to get everyone on board and make them do something that they are not used to doing. For example, there have been so many cricketers, overseas players, local players who have come into the team and I know the Wankhede Stadium because I’ve played there, I’ve grown up there, so I know what works there, what you need to do.”
Rohit led MI to five IPL titles — 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 — making him the joint-most successful captain in the tournament alongside MS Dhoni.
