Aaron Finch reveals Rohit Sharma's 'biggest challenge' after Hardik Pandya's MI captaincy takeover

Former Australia National Cricket Team captain Aaron Finch has highlighted the biggest challenge for Rohit Sharma heading into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Rohit Sharma is no longer the captain of the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League and he will be playing under the leadership of Hardik Pandya in the upcoming edition of the competition.

The decision to replace Rohit Sharma at the helm with the returning Hardik Pandya didn’t sit well with the fans as they felt that the India captain was disrespected by the franchise. Notably, Rohit took over as the captain of the team in 2013 and guided them to 5 title victories. He still has enough years left in him and could have easily carried on as the skipper of the team.

Meanwhile, Aaron Finch has opined that the challenge for Rohit Sharma will just be to go out there and open the batting. He also opined that with no captaincy pressure, Rohit will bat with a lot more freedom.

“I think for Rohit, the challenge would be just walking out and opening the batting as he’s done so many times for India and Mumbai over the years. This might be a wipe off for his shoulders,” Finch said during Star Sports’ Show Game Plan.

“When you are captaining a team constantly, everywhere you go you are captain of the team. You can get engrossed a lot in that, so now having the freedom to walk out and bat will be beneficial for him personally and Mumbai Indians.”

The former Mumbai Indians (MI) captain hasn’t been very impressive with the bat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for a long period of time and with no captaincy pressure on his shoulders, he would be looking forward to unleashing his beast mode as an opener.

After the IPL 2024, Rohit Sharma will once again return to leadership role as he will be leading India National Cricket Team in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.

When you add Mitchell Starc to any T20 team you are going to be better – Aaron Finch

Finch further spoke about his former teammate Mitchell Starc’s acquisition by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a record-breaking ₹24.75 crore.

According to the former Australia captain, the addition of Mitchell Starc to the KKR line-up would do wonders for the franchise as he is lethal across all phases of the game. However, Aaron Finch was worried about the back issues faced by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Shreyas Iyer.

“I think KKR will improve on their last year (performance), they weren’t at their best last year. But Shreyas (Iyer’s) injury cloud would be interesting to see how much of an impact he has throughout the tournament,” said Finch, who featured for as many as eight IPL teams, including the Kolkata Knight Riders.

“When you add Mitchell Starc to any T20 team you are going to be better, his ability with the new ball to swing it upfront will provide very valuable wickets… and in the power play, which is so important for the game. And, his death bowling is obviously exceptional as well.”

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will open their IPL 2024 campaign against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on March 23.