Former Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma has allegedly hit back at his successor Hardik Pandya after the latter reportedly unfollowed him on Instagram.

 

If reports are to be believed, Hardik Pandya has unfollowed Rohit Sharma on Instagram amid an escalating row between the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise's support staff and Rohit Sharma's wife Ritika Sajdeh.

 

While there's no official confirmation of the same, the rift in the Mumbai Indians camp is visibly wide open as Ritika Sajdeh derided Mark Boucher, the head coach of the side.

 

Latest reports suggest that Rohit Sharma has unfollowed Hardik Pandya on the popular photo and video-sharing platform in what is supposedly a tit-for-tat move from India's all-format captain. 

Ritika Sajdeh took Mark Boucher head-on after his recent revelations about the switch in the captaincy of the Mumbai Indians.

 

In a recent statement, Mark Boucher revealed the reasons behind the sacking of the Nagpur-born cricketer as the Mumbai Indians skipper and Hardik Pandya's appointment in his place.

 

“I think it was purely a cricketing decision. We saw the window period to get Hardik back as a player. For me it's a transition phase. A lot of people don't understand in India, people get quite emotional, but you know you take the emotions away from it. I think it's just more of a cricketing decision that was made and I do think it is going to bring the best out of Rohit as a person as a player. Just let him go out and enjoy and score some good runs,” the Mumbai Indians coach said on the Smash Sports podcast.

 

“One thing I did pick up with Ro (Rohit) is that he is a fantastic guy. I mean he's been captaining for ages and he's done really well for Mumbai Indians. Now he also leads India as well. It is that he walks into a place and there's just cameras in it and he's so busy and he hasn't had probably the best couple of seasons of late with the bat but he's done well as a captain,” Mark Boucher added.

 

“I mean one of the things I have spoken about is when you arrive at the IPL and he (Chris Morris) will be able to tell you as well that there's a lot of stuff going on, there's photoshoots and this and that and a lot of emphasis is not actually on the cricket. It's more about the advertising and all that sort of stuff,” he pointed out.

 

“I just thought you know when we're speaking with the whole Mumbai Indians group, we thought that maybe this is the opportunity for him to step as a player. We believe he got some great value to add and just go out there and actually enjoy it without the hype of being a captain,” Mark Boucher noted.

 

“He is still going to captain India so that hype's going be there but when he steps into the IPL maybe just taking that extra bit of pressure off him as a captain and maybe we get the best out of Rohit Sharma. We want to see him playing with a smile on his face,” the former South Africa wicketkeeper-batter explained.

 

However, Mark Boucher's comments didn't go well with Ritika Sajdeh.

 

Ritika Sajdeh reckoned that Mark Boucher's statement was “wrong” in many aspects.

 

Responding in the comments section of the podcast, Ritika Sajdeh posted: “So many things wrong with this…”

 

In the backdrop of Ritika Sajdeh's statement, ex-India batter Aakash Chopra acknowledged that all was not well in the Mumbai Indians' family.

 

He opined that Hardik Pandya would find it enormously difficult to forge unity within the team as the chances of the side being divided between two camps were really high.

 

“I was listening to an interview with Boucher where he explained why they did the captaincy change. He tried to explain the cricketing reasons, but Ritika (Rohit's wife) commented below that, and it was obvious that it would go viral because she said – ‘So many things are wrong with this',” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

 

“We don't know what's right and what's wrong. I am slightly worried because the Mumbai Indians have a phenomenal team on paper, but the biggest pressure on Hardik Pandya will be whether he can combine the five fingers to make a fist, whether he can take the entire team in one direction,” the cricketer-turned-commentator stated. 

 

Before Aakash Chopra shared his views on the ongoing saga in the Mumbai Indians camp, several fans slammed the franchise on X.

 

They highlighted that the family members were now fighting amongst themselves.

 

This showcased that there was no love between the family members, and they were only staying together for the sake of money and fame.

 

It is worth noting that Rohit Sharma was removed as skipper of the Mumbai Indians in December 2023 after leading the franchise to five IPL titles during his decade-long stint as captain from 2013 to 2023. 

 

This came only a month after Rohit Sharma failed to lead the Indian Cricket Team to World Cup glory, having lost the final of the premier ODI competition to Australia at home in Ahmedabad in November.

 

While the move resulted in a massive drop in Mumbai Indians' social media base and brutal trolling of their newly appointed captain, Hardik Pandya, the Ambanis-owned team stuck to their decision.

 

For the unversed, Hardik Pandya played for Mumbai Indians for seven consecutive seasons starting in 2015 before parting ways to join Gujarat Titans during the 2022 season.

 

During his seven-year sojourn with Mumbai Indians, the Team India all-rounder remained a vital cog in the then Rohit Sharma-led team's title-winning runs in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020.

 

Hardik Pandya's two-year term as the leader of the Gujarat Titans (GT) was highly successful as the Gujarat-born cricketer guided them to the IPL title in their maiden season in 2022.

 

During IPL 2023, Gujarat Titans topped the points table during the group stage before making it to the final. 

 

However, the Ahmedabad-based franchise failed to lift their second successive IPL trophy after losing to the charismatic MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the title clash.

 

Rohit Sharma is currently leading the national team in a five-match Test series against England. 

 

After suffering a shock defeat at the hands of the Ben Stokes-led side in the first Test in Hyderabad last month, Team India bounced back in style with a big win in the second in Vizag in February.

 

The 36-year-old cricketer is also expected to lead India in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the US later this year, with IPL 2024 possibly deciding his fate as skipper of the national team in the shortest format of the game.

 

According to some reports, the Ajit Agarkar-led national selection committee will analyze the performance of India's top cricketers, including skipper Rohit Sharma and his predecessor Virat Kohli, before taking a final call regarding the composition of the side that will participate in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the US.

 

Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya is training at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, recuperating from an ankle injury he suffered during the 2023 Cricket World Cup.

 

Initially, the all-rounder's injury was considered to be a minor one. But as he underwent a series of scans, the true extent of the damage caused to his body was revealed. 

 

He has been out of action since October 2023, missing out on bilateral competitions against Australia, South Africa, and Afghanistan in the process.