'Mumbai Indians had to look beyond Rohit Sharma because….': Robin Uthappa on why MI brought in Hardik Pandya in IPL 2024

Rohit Sharma is turning out to be one of the most dangerous openers in IPL 2024 as the batter provided Mumbai Indians with some strong starts this season. His good performance has intensified the criticism of the franchise, which replaced him as the captain of Mumbai Indians and brought back Hardik Pandya for the role of skipper. While fans are angry at Mumbai's management and Hardik Pandya over the decision, former Indian player Robin Uthappa laid down some statistics to showcase how Rohit Sharma's performance level plunged over the years.

While speaking at the TRS podcast, Robin Uthappa mentioned how captaincy was handed over from Ricky Ponting to Rohit Sharma and all other senior players like Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh, supported the young captain.

"Hardik Pandya is their discovery. They did it through their scouting methods. So they are essentially looking at a pure Mumbai Indians boy. When captaincy was given to Rohit Sharma it was taken from Ricky Ponting in the middle of the season. This is the same franchise. All the senior guys Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, and Ricky Ponting supported Rohit," Uthappa said in the TRS podcast.

"In the last four years, statistically... I'm never gonna question the caliber and the gloriousness of Rohit Sharma the batter. But look at it from a franchise perspective. They won in 2020. They didn't win in the last three years. And the last three years, Rohit scored less than 300 runs (only once). So there's a lack of success as a batter, a lack of success as a captain. In just the IPL cause everywhere else, he has scored runs," Uthappa added.

MI land on consensus to look beyond Rohit Sharma

Robin Uthappa spoke about the technical aspect behind Mumbai Indian's decision to change their captain and Rohit Sharma's greatness as a player and captain was for everyone to see during the ICC World Cup 2023.

“So there is a reason MI landed on this consensus that maybe we have to look beyond Rohit. Maybe this conversation came about at the end of the last season. They may have conversations in different directions. Then Rohit Sharma's success at the ODI World Cup came through. His greatness as a player and leader was there for everyone to see,” the former batter said.

"The narrative was thrown up in the air but was yet to land but for Mumbai Indians, it landed last year itself, perhaps. From their perspective, they felt they were right. If you look at how they operated before, to how they are operating now, it's the same. They have been consistent, so how can you fault them?" Uthappa added.