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Virat Kohli let go of captaincy. So did MS Dhoni. But neither did their successors Faf du Plessis nor Ruturaj Gaekwad get booed on the field. So why was Rohit’s successor Hardik Pandya booed? Does it mean that Rohit hasn’t taken the Mumbai Indians’ captaincy snub in the right spirit? Or does it mean that Rohit wasn’t willing to let go of the franchise captaincy like Kohli and Dhoni?
Even Kohli wanted to stay on as ODI captain after quitting T20 captaincy in 2021 and wanted to lead India in the 2023 World Cup at home. But the selectors told Kohli that the BCCI couldn’t have two white ball captains. In 2017, Dhoni also wanted to continue as the white ball captain but had to bow down to the wishes of the market force called Kohli. Similarly, the story of Rohit losing the captaincy to a market force like Hardik was inevitable.
With the IPL world constantly focussing on the perform or perish theory – Rohit didn’t win IPL titles for Mumbai for the last few years. It gave birth to the lack of trust between players and the captain because the Indian captain wasn’t getting the team he wanted. So, all the talk about Rohit wanting to quit T20 captaincy after losing the semi finals to England in the T20 World Cup had no substance.
With both Rohit and Virat not playing T20 for a year to stay fresh and prepare well for the 50-over World Cup also gave rise to the speculation that Rohit won’t captain the T20 side again. In anticipation of what could happen, perhaps, Mumbai Indians opted for Hardik, which is both a business and cricket decision.
But Rohit is a bossman. Now, he wants Hardik to bowl and the star all-rounder can’t play white ball cricket without bowling but one can question why Rohit isn’t scoring consistently in T20 cricket. Who knows? There could be some PR mechanism at work behind booing Hardik. The scene wherein Rohit is seen pacifying the crowd and telling them not to boo Hardik anymore also means that enough is enough, let’s focus on the game. Really? So, let’s focus on seeing some wins from Mumbai Indians!
