Mumbai: Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher admitted that the fans’ reaction to the change in captaincy from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya affected the team’s performance in IPL 2024.
The tumultuous season for Mumbai Indians (MI) in IPL 2024 reached its nadir on Friday as the team succumbed to an 18-run defeat against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Wankhede Stadium, marking their tenth-place finish with only four wins from 14 matches.
The dramatic and controversial switch in captaincy from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya has been at the center of this disappointing campaign, and head coach Mark Boucher didn’t shy away from addressing the impact of fan reactions on the team’s performance.
“It wasn’t great hearing all the boos,” Boucher said. “Certainly, I felt sorry for Hardik as well. It’s never nice to go through something like that. So yeah, there are certain things we need to address. And we are going to address them.
“Now is not probably the right time. Everyone is very disappointed and emotional, so no good decision will get made in the nearest sort of time. We need to go back. We need to evaluate exactly what’s going on.”
Rohit Sharma, a franchise legend and architect of MI’s five IPL titles, began the decisive match on the bench, later joining the chase as an impact player. His 38-ball 68 reignited hope among the Wankhede faithful, whose chants of “Rohit! Rohit!” echoed through the stadium.
However, his dismissal brought a palpable hush, quickly followed by applause. This starkly contrasted with the boos that greeted Hardik Pandya as he stepped onto the field—a persistent reaction from the fans since his controversial trade from Gujarat Titans, where he had led the team to a title and a runners-up finish.
Boucher highlighted the emotional toll and the need for a period of reflection before making any significant decisions.
“There are things that we need improvement on, whether on the field or off the field stuff,” Boucher said. “We’ve got some great heads within the management team as well, and we’ll sit down and we’ll find a way of how to make it better ultimately for the players to produce the sort of cricket that we know these players can produce, which was under par this season.
This season, MI’s performance was undeniably underwhelming. With Hardik Pandya at the helm, they failed to find consistency. Hardik’s individual performance also reflected the broader struggles, scoring 216 runs in 13 innings with a modest average of 18.00 and a strike rate of 143.04, alongside taking 11 wickets in 12 innings with an economy rate of 10.75. Boucher suggested that off-field issues may have affected Hardik’s form and leadership. IANS
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