WHY MUMBAI INDIANS TOOK AWAY CAPTAINCY FROM ROHIT SHARMA

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.