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After losing the 50-over World Cup final to Australia, who would have imagined Rohit Sharma leading the Indian team in the T20 World Cup? Not many. Not even his franchise Mumbai Indians. It is understood that if the Mumbai owners had seen it coming, they wouldn’t have named Hardik Pandya as their captain.
Like all of us, even Mumbai Indians thought that the transition would be smooth like it happened way back in 2012 when Rohit was made the captain mid-season and Ricky Ponting was shown the door.
Like all of us, Mumbai Indians also thought that Hardik would lead the side in place of Rohit, who hadn’t played T20 for more than a year along with Virat Kohli to stay fresh and hungry for the 2023 World Cup.
Now that the public sentiment went in favour of Rohit and the Indian team was praised for their superlative league phase performance in the World Cup at home last year, BCCI president Roger Binny, sources told CricBlogger, was a key decision maker to continue with Rohit as the captain of the T20 team after the Mumbai batsman also showed his willingness to play the ICC event.
Binny’s decision was deliberated upon by BCCI Secretary Jay and other selectors. Those who wondered why Shah announced the T20 captain instead of the selectors, it was done after consulting the stakeholders, which are the selectors. All the talk about Mumbai Indian running Indian cricket isn’t all that real and the Hardik-Rohit episode proved it so.
From what it appears, it is going to be tough for Rohit to continue playing for Mumbai Indians. There are murmurs about how Rohit tried his bit to make Surya Kumar Yadav his deputy for the T20 World Cup instead of Hardik. But someone really big in Indian cricket came to Hardik’s rescue. A section of the team management questioned Hardik’s fitness standards and his poor form with the bat and ball. However, a proven player like Hardik can’t be questioned and the fact is that a big brand like Mumbai Indians making him a captain must have a deeper meaning to it.
There is also a section in the BCCI that believes that if Hardik can bowl in the T20 World Cup, there is no question of blocking him. But blocking Hardik from becoming the vice-captain won’t have shaken the basic foundation of Indian cricket. We all know Surya’s admiration for Rohit and Surya leading a few matches in T20s in the absence of Rohit and Hardik would have given birth to the thought that Surya could be an option. Thankfully, better sense prevailed!
