The Mumbai Indians’ (MI) captaincy for the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) is still a topic of debate and on Tuesday, former India opener Navjot Singh Sidhu shared his opinion.
The MI management decided to change the team’s captain from its five-time IPL winner Rohit Sharma to the all-rounder Hardik Pandya following his trading-in from Gujarat Titans before the current season.
The decision sparked a lot of criticism among MI fans and several experts—including player-turned-politician Sidhu—shared their opinions.
On a Star Sports show, Sidhu said, “I have played in an Indian team where five captains used to play together. Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Ravi Shastri. Pick up a brick and you will find a captain both above and below it. There were no issues because they were playing for their nation. The motivation was to play for your country. So playing under Hardik does not make Rohit smaller.”
Surprisingly, two of the most successful IPL teams gave their captains posts this season. MS Dhoni handed up the captaincy of the Chennai Super Kings to Ruturaj Gaikwad, while Hardik took over for Rohit at MI.
Navjot Singh Sidhu on Rohit Sharma. ⭐pic.twitter.com/OtQNhwitBh
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 24, 2024
Sidhu added, “Dhoni has passed the baton already and that could have happened in Mumbai Indians as well. But this is a franchise and they look at the performances. They gave it three years and when it did not work, they got a new person for the job. You need to accept it. But Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni are great players. A dwarf is a dwarf even if he is standing at the top of a mountain and a God is a God even if they are standing at the bottom of a well.”
