Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians’ full-time captain since 2013, was replaced by Hardik Pandya as skipper for the 2024 season. Rohit is the joint-most successful captain in IPL history with five titles. Pandya, who was with the Gujarat Titans for the last two years, returned to Mumbai in a ground-breaking trade deal.

Speaking on Smash Sports’ Banter, With The Boys podcast, Boucher said that the call to remove Rohit as skipper is “purely cricketing”.

Mark Boucher on Rohit’s removal: ‘It’s a transition phase’

“We saw a window period to get Hardik back as a player,” said Boucher. “For me, it’s a transition phase. I have always spoken about this: when you arrive at the IPL, there is a lot of stuff going on. There’s photoshoots and this and that, and lot of the emphasis is not actually on the cricket, it’s more about advertising and all that sort of stuff.

“One thing I did pick up with Rohit was – he’s a fantastic guy – he’s been captaining for ages and he’s done really well for Mumbai Indians and India. He walks into a place and there are just cameras and he’s so busy. He hasn’t had probably the best couple of seasons of late with the bat, but he’s done well as a captain.”

“Speaking with the whole Mumbai Indians group, we thought maybe this is an opportunity for him to step in for his last year or so. We still want him as a player, absolutely, because we believe he has some great value to add and just go out there and enjoy it, without the hype of being a captain.

“He still got to captain India, so that half is going to be there. But when he steps into the IPL, maybe just taking that extra bit of pressure off him as a captain. Maybe we get the best out of Rohit Sharma and we see him playing with a nice smile on his face, spending time with his beautiful family.”

“There is no easy way to do it.”

On Hardik Pandya’s ascension to captaincy, Boucher said that he had proved his captaincy mettle with his first two seasons at Gujarat Titans.

“He is a Mumbai Indians boy. He gone over to another franchise, he won the title in first year, came out runner-up in his second year. So there’s obviously some very good leadership skills as well,” Boucher said.

“A lot of people don’t understand in India, people get quite emotional, but you know you take the emotions away from it, it is more of a cricketing decision that was made. I do think it will bring the best out of Rohit, as a person and as a player. Let him go there and enjoy it”.

Rohit’s wife Ritika: ‘So many things wrong with this’

On a clip of the same video on Instagram, Rohit’s wife Ritika Sajdeh commented with “So many things wrong with this…”, suggesting that the decision might not have been as easy for both parties.

Update: The Instagram video clip uploaded on the Smash Sports channel (@smashsportsinc), on which Ritika had commented, has now been deleted.

However, the full video is still available on their YouTube channel (31:55 onwards).