Over the past few weeks, a number of player transactions and releases have made headlines, which has the cricket community abuzz with excitement about new developments regarding IPL 2024. But the most talked-about story has been Hardik Pandya’s move from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians, which happened just after the player’s retention deadline. Another surprising decision saw Pandya named captain of the team, taking the place of Rohit Sharma, who captained MI to five IPL championships in 11 years.
Notably, after leading the Chennai Super Kings to five IPL victories in his 14 years as captain, Rohit Sharma is tied with MS Dhoni for the record as the most successful captain in IPL history. MI supporters, on the other hand, are starting to unfollow the team’s social media accounts in response to the significant change in leadership.
The Mumbai Indians’ official Instagram account has lost about four lakh followers since Hardik Pandya was named captain. The Mumbai supporters, who clearly don’t agree with the decision, were hoping that Sharma would continue to guide the team in the next season and use his astute leadership to lead them to unprecedented heights.
In eight years, Mumbai won five titles under Rohit Sharma leadership.
The Mumbai Indians’ X account has also suffered from a similar fate, with a substantial portion of their fan base unfollowing them quickly. After leading the team through its lowest point in 2013, many supporters believe that Rohit should have resigned from the leadership on his own terms. Midway through the 2013 season, when MI had lost three of the first six games, the Nagpur-born batsman was given the reins and guided them to their first-ever title victory.
Mumbai won five titles in eight years, making them the most successful team in league history, and from that point on, they had no intention of looking back. As a result, Pandya will be responsible for carrying on MI’s tradition and has enormous shoes to fill in Rohit’s place.