After the Mumbai Indians’ most recent IPL 2024 match, which they lost by 18 runs at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to the Lucknow Super Giants, head coach Mark Boucher claimed he spoke with Rohit Sharma right away to find out about his future plans. With 417 runs, including a century and a half, Rohit finished as MI’s leading scorer despite faltering in the second half of the season. A crowded Wankhede crowd also gave him a standing ovation, suggesting that even the fans are afraid this may be Rohit’s final appearance in MI colors.
The conjectures have persisted for a considerable amount of time. It came to light after Rohit was reportedly overheard complaining to Abhishek Nayar, the assistant coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders, that nothing was going well at his “home” MI. Although Rohit didn’t specifically mention MI in the unclear recording, many took his comments to mean that he wasn’t happy with the way things were going at MI.
The cherry on top was rumours of a falling out between Rohit and the new captain, Hardik Pandya. The variations were evident in MI’s performance. Having won just four of their fourteen games, they were bottom of the standings. They had finished in last place twice in the previous three years.
The truth is, there haven’t been many discussions on Rohit’s future. Following MI’s 10th loss of the season on Friday, Boucher told the media, “I spoke to him last night or the night before, just to do a little review of the season.”
The challenging question was posed to Rohit by the former South African keeper-batter, to which the Indian skipper responded, “T20 World Cup.”
“What’s next for Rohit Sharma?” I asked. The World Cup (T20) is what he told to me. And that is ideal. That’s all the information I require on Rohit Sharma’s future. He is, in my opinion, an authority on his own fate. Next season is a huge auction. Who can predict what will occur? We simply need to accept each day as it comes, he remarked.
“Rohit Sharma’s season has two halves,” according to Boucher
Even though MI finished as the team with the most runs scored, Boucher stated that Rohit’s season as a batter was split in half and that the former captain would be unhappy with the result. For him, it was practically a season of two halves. He had a terrific start, was hitting the ball well in the nets, and had even scored a century against CSK, according to Boucher.
We genuinely believed that he was headed in the right direction and could help us score some runs. Regretfully, that’s also simply the way T20 is,” he continued.
Rohit, who concluded the 2024 Indian Premier League with a brilliant 68 off 38, was still getting used to the new style of play as an aggressive opener, according to the MI head coach. “He attempted to play aggressively, which is the new strategy for opening batters. He received a few low marks, which regrettably didn’t help us either in that specific circumstance, he stated. However, he ended with a fantastic knock that made it a contest between two halves for him. Given his early start, Ro would likely claim that the season was mediocre for him if you were to ask.”
