A fresh Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya controversy has been sparked by fans, who have accused the pair of unfollowing each other on Instagram.
Mumbai Indians (MI) will be eyeing glory in IPL 2024, but even though the tournament hasn’t begun yet, the squad has been hit with fresh controversy. Before the IPL 2024 auction in December last year, Hardik Pandya returned to MI in a player trade after two years with Gujarat Titans. On his arrival, the all-rounder was also appointed as MI captain, which saw Rohit Sharma’s ten-year tenure as the franchise’s skipper come to an end.
Mumbai Indians’ then captain Rohit Sharma and Gujarat Titans’ then captain Hardik Pandya during the IPL 2023 T20 cricket match, in Ahmedabad(PTI)
Now it looks like the pair have unfollowed each other on Instagram, according to fans on social media. It could either be that they never followed each other on the social media platform, or actually did the unfollowing act.
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Here is what fans had to say:
It is not yet confirmed if the rumours are true. Hardik Pandya had a sensational time with GT, leading them to the title in their debut season, followed by a runners-up finish in the next season.
Earlier, even MI head coach Mark Boucher explained the captaincy change decision. Speaking to SmashSports, he said, “It’s just more of a cricketing decision that was made and I do think it is going to bring the best out of Rohit as a person as a player. Just let him go out and enjoy and score some good runs. He’s been captaining for ages and he’s done really well for Mumbai Indians. Now he also leads India as well. It is that he walks into a place and there’s just cameras in it and he’s so busy and he hasn’t had probably the best couple of seasons of late with the bat but he’s done well as a captain.”
“I just thought you know when we’re speaking with the whole Mumbai Indians group, we thought that maybe this is the opportunity for him to step as a player. We believe he got some great value to add and just go out there and actually enjoy it without the hype of being a captain,” Boucher added.
“He is still going to captain India so that hype’s going be there but when he steps into the IPL maybe just taking that extra bit of pressure off him as a captain an maybe we get the best out of Rohit Sharma. We want to see him playing with a smile on his face, spending a bit of time with his beautiful family.”
But it wasn’t well-received by Rohit’s wife Ritika, who wrote on the comments section of the podcast, “So many things wrong with this”, and it sparked a controversy.
