Batbricks7

Rohit Sharma will hand over captaincy to Hardik Pandya from this year's IPL onwards BCCI

Mumbai Indians pulled off the most head-turning IPL trades in the brief history of the tournament, when they brought Hardik Pandya - a title-winning captain for Gujarat Titans - back to their fold two years after not retaining him. They then turned heads again by taking away captaincy from Rohit Sharma - the man who led them to five IPL titles.

Though MI copped a lot of criticism from their fans on social media for the leadership change, head coach Mark Boucher reckoned it was a 'cricketing decision' while opening up about it for the first time.

"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," Mark Boucher said on Smash Sports podcast.