The MI Saga

With the auction done and dusted, I feel the teams are now finalized. Even though the transfer window is open, I see it highly unlikely that any transfer will take place. Let alone any major transfer. Because all the teams had the fair chance to fill in the gaps at the auction. So, it’s safe to say that the teams are locked.

Now coming to the most talked about thing around cricket for the past month. In the span of a month’s time Hardik Pandya was traded to Mumbai Indians and also made Captain thereby ending Rohit Sharma’s 10-year stint at the helm of arguably one of the most successful sporting franchises with him being touted as one of the most successful captains. This claim is backed by numbers as well since 5 trophies in 10 years is no ordinary achievement. People were initially unhappy with the trade itself calling Pandya disloyal. And ever since the announcement of change in Captaincy, there has been a huge backlash coming from the fans. Especially fans of Rohit Sharma.

While feeling sad about Rohit not being the captain is understandable, we as Cricket fans should also think from the franchise’s point of view. Rohit hasn’t been anywhere near his best in the IPL for nearly the past 5 years. Although he has been great as a captain, he is closer to his retirement than ever and this fact cannot be ignored. I like to believe that he doesn’t take much pressure of captaincy and let it affect his batting. This was evident in the recently concluded World Cup where he absolutely walked the talk throughout the campaign and played attackingly. But in spite of all this, I feel this is the correct time to pass on the baton. Rohit will still play for a couple of years at least as per my opinion and hence having him in the dressing room during the transition process will help Pandya and the team.

Coming back to Pandya and the question of his disloyalty, I don’t understand why such questions aren’t tossed around when coaches or mentors or even the lesser-known players make the shift from one franchise to other. Does that make these other members of the team less significant or are they not equally responsible for the success of a team? I believe every person in the squad and the support staff is equally responsible and hence blaming one player just because he was the captain of his earlier franchise and a prominent India player is not correct. And if by a monetary point of view, a player is getting something better than earlier, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Its hypocritic for a person to judge Pandya when he himself would switch jobs for a better package and growth opportunities. Nobody even considers loyalty at such times. Just because these players are public figures, it doesn’t give us as viewers and fans, the right to question their loyalty.

The last aspect of this whole situation is the atmosphere in the dressing room. From all the material available to the public, MI management seems to be one which values its players and gives them the best possible treatment. MI is particularly known for taking good care of the players and their families whilst also providing them excellent training opportunities. With all this background in mind, I feel the management would have talked to Rohit on a regular basis and conveying to him, their plans for the upcoming seasons would have been their priority. Not only Rohit, but also senior players like Bumrah and Surya would have been kept in the loop about this shift in leadership. Even if they like it or not, Rohit has become the face of the franchise over the past 10 years and MI won’t risk losing its popularity over some lack of communication in the top management. At least I hope that they have taken all due care.

Now that everything is done, the main challenge for Pandya in this shift of captaincy from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians would be to manage the star players in this setup. Gujarat had good players but there were very few big Indian names in that team. Mumbai has a plethora of big Indian names in the squad and how Pandya manages all of them will decide the fate of Mumbai Indians in the 2024 season.