‘Mumbai Indians ka fayda hi hoga’: Sunil Gavaskar on Hardik Pandya taking reins from Rohit Sharma

Mumbai Indians made a bold decision of removing the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma from MI’s captaincy after trading in Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans. The move drew criticism and backlash on social media with fans getting disappointed over the same. However, MI’s top brass has provided reasons for the move as global head of performance Mahela Jayawardene and head coach Mark Boucher supported the decision. 

Now, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has said that handing the captaincy to Hardik Pandya will only go to benefit Mumbai Indians. 

“Isse Mumbai Indians ka fayda hi hoga. Kyuki Hardik Pandya ko captaincy milne se Rohit Sharma ko upar jaake bindaas khelne ke liye freedom diya hai. Vaha pe ap hume intni achi shurvaat dein ki aage Hardik agar 3 par ya 5 par aate hai to Mumbai 200 runs maare It will only benefit Mumbai Indians (giving captaincy to Hardik) as this will allow Rohit Sharma to play freely and express himself at the top of the order. Hardik can then come at No.3 or No.5 and help them post totals of 200-plus consistently),” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

He also reverberated Mark Boucher’s statement of Rohit being an Indian captain in all three formats and removing him from MI’s captaincy will ease the pressure on him. “Look they have always thought about the future of the franchise. Rohit Sharma is already 36 years old and also faces immense pressure being the captain of India for all three formats. They have tried to reduce some of that burden and give that responsibility to the younger shoulders of Hardik Pandya. He took a new team into the finals twice and also won in one of them. So this was the thinking behind it (Dekhiye vo aage ki sochte hai. Unhone dekha hoga ki Rohit Sharma ki umar 36 ho gayi hai. Or unpe kaafi dabav bhi hai kyuki vo Indian team ke captain hai teeno format me. Vo dabav unhone halka karne ki koshish ki hai or ek yuva khilade Hardik Pandya jinhone pichle 2 saal ek nayi team GT ko final leja chuke hai or ek baar jeet gaye hai to unhone ye sochkar badlaav kiya),” Gavaskar added.