Mumbai Indians became the first team to be officially eliminated from the Indian Premier League season 2024 playoffs, and this was not surprising at all. The campaign of the five-time Champions, who underwent an agent in the role of captaincy by appointing Pandya as their new captain of the team, never quite took off. They dealt with several defeats early on in the tournament as they started slow again and could never recover. Even the captain of their team, Hardik, was booed, the team management got slammed, and eventually all came crashing down for one of the most successful franchises of the Indian Premier League of all time, with the major blame put on Hardik Pandya, the treatment of Rohit Sharma, and reports of the two not seeing eye to eye.
However, the former captain of the Australian cricket team, Michael Clarke, feels that the situation between Hardik and Rohit may not be as bad as it looks. The belief of Clarke comes from the selection of Hardik Pandya in the India T20 World Cup squad, with the world cup-winning captain highlighting the power of Rohit in the selection of the team, while he still reckons that not all may well between the two superstars of team India, Rohit would definitely not have it hard if matters had been blown out of proportion.
Clarke said, “You know what? As much as I know Rohit Sharma, he is going to wrap his arms around Hardik Pandya. That shows the character Rohit Sharma has; he is the captain of the Indian cricket team, and trust me, he wants to win the World Cup. He has had a lot of say in the 15 that is picked up by India.”
Clarke further said, “It is very different to, say, the Australian 15; they are heavily focused on spin bowling. If the beef between Rohit and Hardik was as strong as people think Hardik would not be in that World Cup campaign, the captain of team India has as much power.”
Michael Clarke is one of the many people who entered the division between the camps of the Mumbai Indians was strongly of the belief that the players are divided into a Rohit and Hardik group. Then again, he also realized that the quality of the players was there, and what he brought to the table. Yes, the form of Hardik with both bat and ball is not up to par, but he can be a different beast altogether when it comes to playing for the Indian cricket team and not as captain.
