One of the biggest news in December 2023 was Hardik Pandya’s appointment as the captain of Mumbai Indians (MI) for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. 5-time IPL winning captain, Rohit Sharma, was removed as the captain and it caused a huge uproar on social media.
Fans were naturally irked with this decision and started pouring in an unprecedented level of hate to Hardik Pandya. While the MI team management highlighted the future vision as the reason, it is the first instance of an Indian captain not captaining his side in the IPL.
IPL is all set to start from the second half of March and notably, the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 is right after the tournament. Therefore, this league becomes extremely important for all the players and for the team management of the respective nations.
In this article, we take a look at 3 reasons why Rohit Sharma might not play all games for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024:
1. Age Factor
Rohit Sharma is already 36 years old and will be turning 37 in April 2024, in the middle of the IPL. Age certainly isn’t on Rohit Sharma’s side and it might not be long before he hangs up his boots from all forms of cricket.
This could possibly be one of the reasons why Sharma might not feature in all the games for Mumbai Indians in the upcoming lucrative IPL. Fitness issues might arise as it has happened with him in the past.
2. Possible rift with Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya’s trade from Gujarat Titans (GT) and his appointment as the captain of MI certainly didn’t start on a sour note. Especially when Rohit has won 5 IPL titles for Mumbai Indians, with the first one coming in 2013.
If Rohit doesn’t deliver the goods with the bat, Hardik Pandya might be forced to drop him from the starting XI. This could be another reason why we might not witness the Indian team skipper in all the matches in this edition of the IPL.
3. The upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024
As the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 will be held right after the IPL, the Indian cricket team management might be issuing directives to the IPL teams for managing the workload of a few top players.
If Rohit Sharma’s workload is managed then he would definitely keep the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 in mind, which will be taking place in West Indies and USA.
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