Rohit Sharma’s wife Ritika Sajdeh counters Mark Boucher’s statement on Mumbai Indians' captaincy transition

The captaincy transition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians (MI) had created a stir in the cricket fraternity. The decision to hand over the reins to Hardik Pandya from Rohit Sharma, one of the most successful captains in the history of the league, did not go down well with MI fans and undoubtedly split 'One Family' apart. 

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Months later, head coach Mark Boucher opened up on why the franchise had decided to replace Rohit with their transfer player Pandya. The former South Africa cricketer, in a podcast, detailed that the move was purely a cricketing decision to bring the best out of Rohit, the batter. However, Rohit's wife Ritika Sajdeh was not convinced by Boucher's justification and responded with a cryptic comment.

"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 and as a player. Just let him go out and enjoy and score some good runs," Boucher said on Smash Sports podcast.

Reacting to a video clip on Instagram about the same, Ritika wrote, “So many things wrong with this". 

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Ritika Sajdeh's comment on Mark Boucher's interview talking about Hardik Pandya taking over MI captaincy. (Smash Sports Podcast). pic.twitter.com/5sAAVa5xVu

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) February 6, 2024

Maybe we will get the best out of Rohit Sharma: Boucher 

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MI's fortunes changed in 2013 when Rohit made his captaincy debut after Ricky Ponting struggled to lead the side. He led the Mumbai-based franchise to glory in the same year and went on to win four more in his 10-year tenure. The franchise was keen to rope in their former all-rounder but had to hand over the captaincy baton for that. Pandya, who led Gujarat Titans to victory in 2022 and the finals of the 2023 season, was traded for a huge sum in December last year. 

"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 are 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 probably, but he's done well as a captain," Boucher said.

"And 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 up as a player. We believe he has got some great value to add and just go out there and actually enjoy it without the hype of being a captain. He is still going to captain India so that hype's going to 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 will get the best out of Rohit Sharma," he added.