Ahead of IPL 2024, Mumbai Indians decided to trade Hardik Pandya to Gujarat Titans and also appointed him as the captain of their team. He took over the captaincy from Rohit Sharma, which was a shock to many as Rohit Sharma is one of the most successful captains in the history of the tournament. Under his leadership, Mumbai won the title in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020, but failed to win any title in the last three years.

With an aim to change this, the Mumbai management appointed Hardik as the new captain as under his leadership Gujarat won the title in 2022 and qualified for the finals in 2023. After being removed from the captaincy, Rohit is still in the team and continues to be a specialist batsman for Mumbai. Speaking about the same, former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu said that there should be no problem for a great batsman like Rohit Sharma as this is not the first time he is playing as a player.

Sidhu gave this statement regarding Rohit Sharma

Sidhu said that he has played in an Indian team in which many captains have come and gone, so Rohit can keep pace with Mumbai Indians in the IPL as well.

Sidhu while talking to Star Sports said, “Rohit Sharma is playing as a player, this is not the first time. I have played in an Indian team where there are five former captains. He was playing with me, I have played among captains like Dilip Vengsarkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Srikkanth, in which I have seen five captains playing together on the field. But there was no problem at that time because we all were playing for the country.”

“MS Dhoni has also given his captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad. Mumbai franchise could have made Pandya the captain like Ruturaj Gaikwad but no, the franchise saw that Rohit could not lead the team to any IPL title in three years, so they made Pandya the captain. He also said that to become a player like Rohit, one has to work hard.”