We wanted to take captaincy pressure off Rohit, he adds value as batter: MI head coach

Cape Town: Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher has revealed that Rohit Sharma’s removal from the team’s captaincy was a tough decision meant to free him as a batter given that he did not have a great run in the past couple of seasons.

The Reliance-owned franchise, in the most talked about one-way ‘all-cash trade’ in the IPL history, bought back all-rounder Hardik Pandya after his successful two-year stint with Gujarat Titans. The team subsequently named him the skipper replacing Rohit, who led the side to five IPL titles.

“We saw a window to get Hardik back as a player,” Boucher told South Africa-based podcast ‘Banter with The Boys’. “We still want him (Rohit) as a player, absolutely because we know he has some great value to add and just go out there and actually enjoy it, without the hype of being the captain,” he said.

“He probably hasn’t had the best couple of seasons with the bat but he has done well as captain and I just thought after speaking with whole Mumbai Indians group, we thought may be this is an opportunity for him to step in for his last year or so,” the coach added.

While the hype around an Indian skipper will still be there but Boucher expects Rohit to operate more freely with the bat.