Anjum Chopra asserts that Rohit Sharma vs Hardik Pandya was bound to happen in Mumbai Indians

India’s former Women’s team captain Anjum Chopra has become the latest to react to Mumbai Indians’ re-appointment of Hardik Pandya to replace Rohit Sharma as captain of the franchise.

The MI management led by Mark Boucher was all over the headlines for their abrupt decision and it drew a lot of criticism as well.

Mumbai Indians will be without Rohit Sharma’s captaincy for the first time since 2013, the same year they landed their maiden IPL title. Under his regime, MI went on to claim another 4 IPL titles in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020 before the Chennai Super Kings emulated the record and joined them as the most successful IPL franchises.

Ahead of the mega IPL auction in 2022, Mumbai were forced to release Hardik who then led Gujarat Titans to an IPL title in their first season. Last year, Pandya again led GT to the final but this time they lost against MS Dhoni’s CSK.

And ahead of the all-important IPL 2024 auction, MI brought the all-rounder back but at the cost of Rohit’s removal from captaincy.

Anjum Chopra feels it was a tough decision to replace Rohit Sharma as MI captain

While speaking to Times of India in an exclusive interview, Anjum Chopra claimed that it would have been a difficult decision for MI to replace Rohit Sharma as the captain. She opined that a player never actually comes straight into a team as a captain but claimed that a move like this was bound to happen someday.

“A player’s job is to play the game. You always walk into a team as a player. You never walk into a team as a captain. How we are seeing from the outside, how the franchise is looking at it from the inside, and now players are looking at it, they have their reasons.”

“It wouldn’t have been easy to replace a player and captain of Rohit Sharma’s stature. But someday that will happen.” – Anjum Chopra told the Times of India. 

Things further escalated when Mark Boucher stated in an interview that Rohit might be on for his last few IPL seasons, given his performance off late hadn’t been up to the mark. And that’s why the management brought back Hardik Pandya, not just as “the player” but also as “the captain”.

It will be interesting to see if the internal turmoil has any impact on Mumbai’s IPL 2024 season. The 5-time winners will be vying for their 6th title and first since 2020.

Anjum Chopra feels MI’s decision had solid reasoning to it

Anjum Chopra went on to further claim that Mumbai Indians’ decision to remove Rohit Sharma from captaincy had a solid reason for it. She stated that outsiders often create conspiracy theories of their own but the reality from the inside is often highly contrasting.

The 46-year-old also said that Rohit had received captaincy at a tough juncture in 2013 and that people shouldn’t be getting too emotional about it as it’s all about balancing things.

“When Rohit was given captaincy for Mumbai Indians, it wouldn’t have been a very easy decision. At that time many stalwarts and experienced players were playing. MI gave him the captaincy because of his ability and Rohit Sharma went on to guide MI to 5 title wins.”

“It’s not about how we from the outside think, it’s about how franchises from the inside think. Let’s not run into emotions. It’s about balancing things considering the present and future of the team.” – Anjum Chopra concluded.